State v. Manns, 36810
| Decision Date | 25 May 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 36810,36810 |
| Citation | 537 S.W.2d 673 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. John Earl MANNS, Defendant-Appellant. . Louis District, Division One |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Lawrence Willbrand, St. Louis, for defendant-appellant.
John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Preston Dean, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Brendan Ryan, Circuit Atty., Julian D. Cosentino, Asst. Circuit Atty., St. Louis, for plaintiff-respondent.
John Earl Manns was convicted by the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis in a jury-waived trial of the offense of burglary in the second degree, § 560.070 RSMo. 1969, and after overruling his Motion for New Trial and granting him allocution, the trial court sentenced him to 7 years in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections. § 560.095(2) RSMo. 1969. This appeal followed.
The appellant was charged in Information filed in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis with one prior conviction of a felony, to-wit: Felonious Assault, and in Count I of the Information with the burglary of a building belonging to Eli Apple, d/b/a Meyer Bros. Grocery, and in Count II of the Information with Malicious Assault with a Dangerous and Deadly Weapon, to-wit: a sawed-off shotgun, upon one Barry Awalt on the same day as the burglary aforesaid, i.e. March 16, 1974. Appellant waived his right to a jury trial and proceeded to trial before the court without a jury. After hearing evidence the trial court found appellant guilty of burglary in the second degree charged in Count I of the Information and not guilty of the assault alleged in Count II of the Information.
The evidence offered by the State was that the Meyer Brothers Grocery, owned by Eli Apple, was situated at 1903 Martin Luther King Drive in the City of St. Louis, Missouri. That at approximately 6:30 p.m. on the night of March 16, 1974, Mr. Apple secured the building in which the market was situate and left the premises with the burglar alarm activated. In the store at that time was the stock of his business, i.e. groceries, meat and liquor. Later that evening he received a telephone call from the ADT burglar alarm system informing him that the silent alarm in the market was sounding. Mr. Apple returned to his place of business and when he did the police were there. The police officers advised him that someone was inside the store and showed him a large hole that had been made in the exterior of the rear wall of the building. No tools were found near this hole in the wall. Two police officers, Officers Treece and Awalt of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, had responded to the call for an alarm sounding at the market at approximately 10:00 p.m. and almost immediately after their arrival were joined by another police officer, Patrolman Flinn. While Officer Flinn remained at the front of the store the other two officers proceeded to the rear of the building where they found a hole approximately 3 feet in diameter in the rear wall of the building. The police officers shined their flashlights into the opening and observed the silhouette of a figure, facing them, and holding a sawed-off shotgun. They heard a shotgun discharge from inside the building and Officer Awalt fired two revolver shots in the building in response. In the meantime, other police officers had arrived on the scene and tear gas was discharged into the store building. Officers Treece and Awalt stood at the hole in the rear wall of the building and observed someone standing just inside. They grabbed this person and pulled him outside through the hole in the wall. This someone was the appellant. As appellant was pulled through the hole in the wall he fell down on the ground outside the building and injured his face. He bled. He was placed under arrest and placed in a police cruiser.
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State v. Rivers, 38205
...whether the evidence was sufficient to make a submissible case. State v. White, 439 S.W.2d 752, 753(2) (Mo.1969); State v. Manns, 537 S.W.2d 673, 675(1) (Mo.App.1976); State ex rel. Ryan v. Holt, 499 S.W.2d 821, 823(2) Defendant raises on this appeal the sufficiency of the evidence to suppo......