State v. Meadows

• Decision Date: 23 January 1990
• Docket Number: 56227,Nos. 54220,s. 54220
• Citation: 785 S.W.2d 635
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Harold J. MEADOWS, Appellant. Harold J. MEADOWS, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 635

785 S.W.2d 635

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Harold J. MEADOWS, Appellant.

Harold J. MEADOWS, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent.

Nos. 54220, 56227.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Eastern District,

Division Four.

Jan. 23, 1990.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court

Denied March 7, 1990.

Application to Transfer Denied April 17, 1990.

Cheryl Rafert, St. Louis, for appellant.

William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., Robert V. Franson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

HAMILTON, Presiding Judge.

A jury convicted Appellant, Harold Meadows (hereinafter Meadows), of first degree murder, § 565.020 RSMo 1986, on December 10, 1987. The trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole. On March 28, 1988, Meadows filed a motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 29.15. His counsel filed an amended motion on June 15, 1988. Following an evidentiary hearing, the motion court denied Meadows' request for post-conviction relief. He now appeals both his conviction and the decision of the motion court.

The evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, discloses the following facts. On August 15, 1986, when Meadows and Mark McClure (hereinafter McClure) visited the residence of Jim Drees (hereinafter Drees), McClure attempted to sell drugs to Drees. Meadows and Drees were neighbors. Meadows, Drees, and two of Drees' fellow employees, Patricia Abram (hereinafter Abram) and Bradley Vollmer (hereinafter Vollmer), often met at Drees' house that summer. Abram, Drees, and Vollmer were laid off from their jobs during the summer of 1986. Drees had known McClure for approximately one week before August 15.

Meadows and McClure left Drees' house, only to return later that evening. Drees, Vollmer, and Abram were there when they arrived. They drank beer and played pool. Thereafter, Drees went to bed, and Meadows left. Early on August 16, 1986, McClure, Vollmer, and Abram left Drees' house to buy cocaine. McClure and Vollmer entered the house where they expected to purchase the drugs; Abram remained in the car. McClure and Vollmer, returning to the car without the drugs, told Abram a man took their money so they were going to take his car. They then stole what they believed to be the drug dealer's car and drove it to the Drees residence.

About 3 a.m. on August 16, 1986, Meadows and McClure went together to see McClure's uncle, Gary Kleinigger (hereinafter Kleinigger). Meadows had given McClure's brother, Jeff, money to purchase cocaine for Meadows, and they hoped to find him at Kleinigger's house. After determining Jeff McClure was not at the Kleinigger residence, McClure and Meadows left. Meadows and McClure returned to Drees' house without having obtained any cocaine.

Drees awoke around 10:00 or 11:00 on Saturday, August 16, 1986. Vollmer showed him the stolen car. Meadows, Vollmer, and McClure made telephone calls trying to sell the car. McClure finally found a buyer and all four took the car to sell it. Vollmer signed the title over to the buyer.

During the evening of August 16, 1986, Drees had a barbecue dinner at his house attended by Meadows, Vollmer, and Abram. At one point, McClure was asleep on the living room floor. Abram heard Vollmer and Meadows talking about the stolen car. Drees was also present. Vollmer said he was not going to jail over a stolen car and that "we have to get rid of him." Vollmer, who was on probation, feared it would be revoked if McClure said anything about the stolen car.

Drees and Abram went into the house, but Vollmer followed and asked Drees for a knife. Drees gave Vollmer a knife. Meadows and Vollmer said they were going to stab McClure, kill him, and throw him in the river. Drees, Abram, and their children left Drees' house for forty-five minutes to an hour.

While Drees and Abram were gone, Kathy Kalish (hereinafter Kalish) arrived at the Drees residence. Meadows, answering the door, appeared nervous. He refused to allow Kalish to enter the house or to wait for Drees. Instead, he loaned her $20 and sent her to a bar.

When Drees and Abram returned, Meadows, Vollmer, and McClure were no longer in the house. The children discovered blood in the basement. Drees and Abram cleaned up the blood from the floor. They also observed a hole in the wall having a diameter of three feet, a knife, a bucket of bloody water, and Vollmer's belt in the basement.

Meadows called Drees approximately one week later and asked him to come to his house to discuss something important. He told Drees that the discovery of McClure's body had been reported on the news. When Drees questioned him, Meadows explained that the damage to Drees' basement occurred while they were fighting with McClure, trying to kill him. He said that he and Vollmer transported McClure's body in Vollmer's truck to Chain of Rocks on the Missouri River, weighted the body with rocks, and dragged it out into the river.

Meadows told a similar story to Michael Morgan (hereinafter Morgan) during a party at the house of John Suggs (hereinafter Suggs) near the end of August. Meadows assured Morgan that he would not have to worry about McClure any more, referring to him as a "little rip-off son-of-a bitch." Meadows said that he had choked McClure.

McClure's body was found August 19, 1986, near the Chain of Rocks Canal in Illinois. The medical examiner for Madison County, Illinois, testified the body had been submerged in the water within a one week period. Although the body exhibited cutting wounds, the cause of death was strangulation before immersion in water.

Because Meadows was one of the last people to see the victim alive, the Madison County Sheriff's Department interviewed him on September 2, 1986. Meadows said that he did drugs with both McClure and his brother, Jeff, and that he last saw Mark McClure at a 7-Eleven convenience store. During a second interview on September 4, 1986, Meadows said he was with McClure at Drees' house on August 13, that he saw McClure at the 7-Eleven, but that he had stayed home on August 16.

Meadows contacted an officer with the Overland Police Department who was assigned to the Municipal Enforcement Group as an undercover drug officer. Meadows told the undercover officer that he knew McClure and that McClure was a thief. He said that McClure stole a car with someone in Kinloch who was on probation and who killed McClure. He again said he last saw McClure at the 7-Eleven convenience store. An officer was thereafter assigned to survey Meadows' house. On the afternoon of February 9, 1987, police arrested Meadows after he observed the police car outside his house, sped past it in his car and was stopped.

Meadows was advised of his rights both when he was told he was a suspect in a homicide investigation and again when the officer served a warrant for murder in the first degree. Meadows executed a Miranda waiver and denied killing McClure. He failed to respond when asked whether he knew who had killed McClure. When asked if he had been present, he responded, "I won't lie to you."

Meadows testified in his own behalf at trial. He admitted that he helped Vollmer dispose of McClure's body but stated that Vollmer actually killed McClure. He said that he was upstairs in the bathroom and went to the basement only after he heard a noise like a fight. He then saw Vollmer choking McClure with a cord and the knife. Meadows further testified he drove the truck and helped dispose of the body only because he feared Vollmer. Ultimately, the jury found Meadows guilty of murder in the first degree.

Meadows raises eight points on direct appeal. He asserts the trial court erred because it (1) admitted evidence of unrelated crimes; (2) sustained the State's motion to strike venirepersons who opposed the death penalty; (3) denied him counsel at arraignment; (4) refused to submit instructions regarding witness immunity and voluntary manslaughter; (5) overruled defense objections to hearsay testimony and to questions asked on redirect examination; (6) sustained the State's objection to defense attorney's questioning of Donald Spaul and Kathy Kalish and refused to admit Exhibit A; (7) denied him an opportunity to appear and testify before the grand jury; and (8) denied his motion for judgment of acquittal even though the evidence was insufficient, as a matter of law, to support a finding of guilt.

Meadows has failed to preserve Points I, III, and VII for appellate review because he raised none of them at the trial level. See St. Louis County v. McClune, 762 S.W.2d 91, 92-93 (Mo.App.1988). Moreover, even had he preserved these points, each lacks merit.

In Point I, Meadows asserts that evidence of other crimes, that is, the sale or use of narcotics and the stealing of an automobile, was improperly admitted at trial. Evidence concerning drug usage and attempts to find a buyer for the stolen car were, however, intimately connected to the crime with which Meadows was charged. State v. Trimble, 638 S.W.2d 726, 732 (Mo. banc 1982); State v. Buckles, 636 S.W.2d 914, 918 (Mo. banc 1982); State v. Clark, 711 S.W.2d 928, 934 (Mo.App.1986). Such evidence is admissible when it tends to establish (1) motive; (2) intent; (3) the absence of mistake or accident; (4) a common scheme or plan embracing more than one crime so related that proof of one tends to establish the other; or (5) the identity of the person charged. Trimble, 638 S.W.2d at 732; State v. Merritt, 734 S.W.2d 926, 933 (Mo.App.1987). In addition, evidence of other crimes is admissible when criminal conduct is part of a continuous occurrence intimately connected with the crime for which the defendant is on trial. State v. Kenley, 701 S.W.2d 185, 186 (Mo.App.1985). Thus, the state may "paint a complete and coherent picture of the crime charged and it is not required to sift and separate the evidence and exclude the testimony tending to prove the crime for which defendant is...