State v. Mangum, ED 96029.
| Decision Date | 08 January 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. ED 96029.,ED 96029. |
| Citation | 390 S.W.3d 853 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Robert Lee MANGUM, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Timothy Forneris, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.
Chris Koster, Atty. Gen., Daniel N. McPherson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.
Defendant Robert Lee Mangum stands convicted of one count of first-degree domestic assault, Section 565.072 RSMo 2000; 1 one count of first-degree assault, Section 565.050; and two counts of armed criminal action, Section 571.015. The convictions stem from an altercation between defendant and his former girlfriend, Amanda, and her sister Melissa, over a house key. During the altercation, defendant fired his gun, hitting Amanda in the shoulder.
We shall consider two of the points the defendant raises in this appeal. First, he challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain his conviction for first-degree assault. The State charged defendant with first-degree assault for shooting in the direction of Melissa. Defendant contends that his act of shooting and hitting Amanda did not evince an intent to seriously injure Melissa necessary to support the conviction. Second, defendant challenges the self-defense instructions submitted by the trial court. Defendant contends that at the time he pulled out his gun and fired, he was under attack from multiple assailants. He thus alleges the trial court plainly erred in failing to sua sponte modify the instructions to hypothesize multiple assailants such that the jury could consider the acts of both sisters together in determining whether he was justified in using force to protect himself.
We first hold the State presented sufficient evidence to sustain defendant's conviction for first-degree assault. We also conclude that the trial court erred in failing to modify the self-defense instructions, and thus we reverse the judgment of conviction and remand for a new trial before a properly instructed jury.
We must consider two significantly different versions of the events that transpired on the fateful night of November 7, 2008. Because the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, we must set out the facts in the light most favorable to the State. Then, because the defendant alleges error regarding self-defense instructions, we must set out the facts in the light most favorable to the defendant.
We first recount the facts as the State portrays them.
Defendant dated Amanda for about a year until she ended the relationship. Amanda asked defendant to move out of her apartment, which defendant slowly did over the course of several weeks. Every time defendant went to the apartment to retrieve some belongings, he talked to Amanda about getting back together. Amanda repeatedly told defendant she did not want to continue the relationship. One day, defendant called Amanda to retrieve the last of his belongings, a large television. Amanda told defendant that she was not at home and that he could stop by the apartment to get his television. She also told him to leave his key to her apartment on the entertainment system after he was finished removing his television. According to Amanda, defendant seemed upset that she was not at home and he hung up the phone.
When Amanda returned home at about 11 o'clock that night she saw that the television was gone, but did not see the key where she had asked the defendant to leave it. She searched her apartment, but did not find the key. She called the defendant and asked where he had left the key. Defendant stated he still had the key and would bring it over to her apartment the next day. Amanda was uncomfortable with defendant having the key and asked defendant to bring it over that night. He refused. Amanda asked if they could meet halfway between their houses. He again refused. Amanda asked if she could come to his house and get the key. He agreed to this.
Amanda, accompanied by her older sister Melissa, immediately left for defendant's house. Amanda drove Melissa's car. After about a twenty-minute drive, the two sisters arrived at defendant's home and parked on the street in front of the house, with the driver's side of the car at the curb next to the house. Amanda asked her sister to go get the key. Melissa agreed and got out of the car. Amanda remained in the car, seated in the driver's seat.
Melissa walked around the car and up the stairs to the porch and rang the doorbell. No one answered. She then knocked on the door. Melissa heard some dogs barking inside the home, but no one answered the door. She rang the doorbell again. Again, no one answered. Melissa heard movement inside the house, and Amanda saw a curtain move. Amanda also saw defendant's car parked just in front of her on the street. Melissa stayed on the porch for nearly ten minutes. She was about to turn around and walk back down the stairs when she heard the defendant ask, “Who is it?” Melissa identified herself. The defendant opened the door and asked Melissa what she wanted. Melissa asked for her sister's key. The defendant refused, stating that it was his key and that Amanda was not getting it back. Amanda called out from the car, asking for her key. Melissa told the defendant that they had just come for the key and that they wanted to go home. Defendant, who by this point had stepped out onto the porch, walked down the stairs, pushing at Melissa. He then threw the key in the yard, in the direction of the car. Defendant approached the driver's side door, asking Amanda if he could talk to her.
Melissa jumped in between the defendant and the car, trying to block defendant from getting to the car. Facing defendant, with the car and her sister behind her, she asked defendant to leave her and her sister alone, and told him that they were leaving. Defendant shoved Melissa, grabbed her by the throat with both hands and lifted her off the ground. Defendant had his hands on Melissa for about two minutes and held her off the ground for approximately thirty seconds. During this time Amanda was yelling at defendant to let her sister go. Amanda then grabbed a crowbar 2 from inside the car and got out of the car. She told defendant to stop choking her sister and raised the crowbar up in her right hand. Amanda did not swing the crowbar at the defendant. She testified at trial that she could not have hit the defendant without also hitting her sister. Defendant let go of Melissa, and stated, “[Y]ou gonna get a crowbar ... I got something.” He then pulled a gun out of his pocket and fired three shots. One of the bullets hit Amanda in the shoulder and she dropped the crowbar. Melissa was standing in between defendant and Amanda, less than an arm's length away from the defendant, when defendant fired the shots. Melissa explained that there was little to no space between her and the defendant—that she was basically “a sandwich” between her sister and the defendant. After the shots rang out, Melissa turned around, looked at her sister, and saw that she was bleeding and limp. The sisters got into the car and Melissa drove Amanda to the hospital for medical attention.
The police arrested defendant several days later. After being advised of his Miranda rights,3 defendant made an audio-taped statement, telling officers that he had gotten into an argument with Amanda and her sister over the key, that the two women approached him, that he pulled out the gun for protection, and that it “went off.” He denied trying to shoot the sisters. A police firearms examiner later tested the gun and testified at trial that the gun was in nice condition and in proper working order, and that it did not have any defects, such as jamming. The examiner further testified that the gun had a nine-pound trigger pull and that it would require an extraordinary set of circumstances for the gun to discharge without the trigger being deliberately pulled.
The State charged defendant with committing one count of first-degree domestic assault for shooting Amanda, one count of first-degree assault for shooting in the direction of Melissa, one count of third-degree assault for choking Melissa, and two counts of armed criminal action. The case proceeded to a jury trial.
Now we shall learn of the defendant's version of events.
Defendant received a call from Amanda around midnight. Amanda yelled at him about not leaving the key. Defendant responded, telling Amanda that he and his friends were in a rush to get his television and forgot to leave the key. He told Amanda that he would bring the key back to her the next day. Amanda insisted on meeting halfway, but defendant told her he could not do that because his car was low on gas and it was the middle of the night. Amanda then told him she was coming over to his house. Defendant hung up on Amanda because he did not feel like getting stressed out.
Later that same night, defendant was in his bed watching television when he heard a loud beating at the door. He was not expecting visitors at that time of night. He had not invited Amanda over, and had not agreed to her coming over to get the key. Defendant put on his clothes, grabbed his gun, and went upstairs to make sure his mother was safe. He always kept a gun with him for his mother's and his own protection. After checking on his mother, he went to the door, looked out the peephole and saw a person dressed all in black with a hood covering the person's head. Defendant could not identify the person or tell if the person was a man or a woman, as the person was looking down. According to defendant, the person started kicking the front door with such force that it shook the house. He went to the window, looked out, and saw a car out in the street, but did not recognize it. His mother called the police. Defendant asked who was out there and Melissa identified herself. He...
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