State v. Moore

• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Patricia L. Cohen
• Citation: State v. Moore, 264 S.W.3d 657 (Mo. App. 2008)
• Decision Date: 26 August 2008
• Docket Number: No. ED 89758.,ED 89758.
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Anthony C. MOORE, Appellant.

264 S.W.3d 657

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Anthony C. MOORE, Appellant.

No. ED 89758.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Division One.

August 26, 2008.

Lisa M. Stroup, Assistant Public Defender, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.

Shaun J. Mackelprang, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.

PATRICIA L. COHEN, Judge.

Introduction

Defendant Anthony Moore appeals the judgment of conviction for two counts of murder in the first degree on the grounds that the trial court erred in: 1) overruling Defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal; and 2) admitting evidence of Defendant's mental condition months after the charged offenses.

Background

Defendant was the father of Toni Moore, two years of age, and Kanyé Anderson, nine months. On the afternoon of August 8, 2004, Defendant picked up his daughter Toni from the home of Toni's mother, Stephanie Jones-Phillips. During the 20 to 30 minutes that Defendant spent at her house, Ms. Jones-Phillips did not notice anything unusual in his behavior.

Later that afternoon, Defendant picked up Kanyé from Kanyé's mother, Iesha Anderson. Ms. Anderson testified that Defendant was behaving normally and she had no concerns about allowing him to take Kanyé.

With their mothers' consent, the children stayed overnight with Defendant at Defendant's step-mother's house. On the morning of August 9, 2004, Defendant and his sisters, Tara Harris and Tracy Harris, fed and bathed the children and played with them. Neither sister noticed anything strange about Defendant's behavior. At approximately 11:00 a.m., Defendant left the house with the intention of having the children professionally photographed.

Around 1:30 p.m., Defendant called Ms. Jones-Phillips and asked her to pick up Toni. When Ms. Jones-Phillips told Defendant that she was at work, he replied, "Never mind." Defendant's speech and tone were normal.

Around 3:00 p.m., Defendant went to a riverside park just south of the Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis. Defendant drove his car down a boat ramp and into the mud of the Mississippi River. He removed Toni and Kanyé from the car and carried them to the front of the car, where he killed them by holding their faces in the mud until they suffocated. The autopsy reports indicated that both children had abrasions on their faces and mud in their trachea and esophagi.

Adrian Williams, a witness who was at the park at the time of the murders, testified that he had planned to park his car on that boat ramp, but decided to park elsewhere when he saw Defendant's car in the bank of the river and observed Defendant crying by the driver-side door. Mr. Williams later saw Defendant walk out of the park crying and covered in mud. When Defendant walked by Mr. Williams' car, Mr. Williams heard him "uttering something" that did not make sense.

While running errands, Defendant's aunt, Venita Burnett, had passed Defendant on the street and, recognizing that something was wrong, rushed home to pick up Tara and Tiarra Harris, another sister of Defendant. At trial, Tara testified that the group of women found Defendant walking down the street with mud on his legs, hands, and face. Defendant was foaming at the mouth and saying something unintelligible. The women exited the car and tried to talk to Defendant and find out where the children were. Defendant acted as though he did not see them and continued speaking in what "sounded like tongues." Tara instructed Tiarra to stay with Defendant while she and Ms. Burnett looked for the children.

Tara and Ms. Burnett found Defendant's car in the mud at the bottom of the boat ramp. The front end of the car was damaged, the driver's door was open, the engine was running, and the transmission was in reverse gear. Tara searched the inside of the car for the children before walking around to the front of the car where she discovered their bodies.

At about 3:00 p.m., Officer Sean Mallon responded to the park for a call that a black male had drowned his children in the river. When he reached the park, numerous bystanders waved him down and directed him to the boat ramp. A woman covered in mud, whom he identified as Defendant's cousin, walked up the ramp to Officer Mallon and told him that Defendant killed the children and she had tried to save them.

Around the same time, Detective Robert Robinson responded to a disturbance call regarding a "violent OBS."¹ When Detective Robinson arrived to the area, Defendant's sister waved him down. Detective Robinson testified that the sister was "hysterical" and said, "Hey, my brother just kind of flipped out, and he took off running down the street." She informed Detective Robinson that Defendant was shirtless and covered in mud.

Detective Robinson located Defendant and observed that, in addition to being shirtless and muddy, Defendant "was very sweaty" and he "had like a froth around his mouth, and he kept shouting something loud over and over and over, and he had his fists clenched, and he just seemed like he was in a violent rage." Detective Robinson started to get out of his car, but Defendant "charged" at him, so he closed the door, rolled down the window, and tried to converse with Defendant from inside the vehicle. Defendant continued walking down the middle of the street and "chanting something." Believing Defendant to be dangerous, Detective Robinson called for assistance and specifically requested the help of an officer with a Taser, the police department's first level of non-lethal force for stopping aggressive subjects.

Several police officers in marked patrol cars responded to the scene, including Officer Patrick Hokamp. Officer Hokamp testified that Defendant "was speaking in an incoherent language, and the look on his face was dazed like he didn't know where he was." Approximately six police officers surrounded Defendant. When Defendant, ignoring Officer Hokamp's orders to stop moving, walked toward him clenching his fists, Officer Hokamp deployed his Taser, giving Defendant a five-second electrical shock. Defendant fell to the ground but refused to stop moving or put his hands behind his back. After Officer Hokamp administered another five-second charge, Defendant complied and was handcuffed. Once Defendant was placed in an ambulance, his sisters informed the officers that he had just killed his children.

The State charged Defendant with two counts of murder in the first degree. Defendant waived his right to a trial by jury, and the court tried the case on April 9 and 10, 2007. At trial, Defendant presented testimony of two psychiatrists in support of his defense that he was not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

At the conclusion of trial, the court issued a "Findings of the Court" holding that Defendant's acts were done knowingly and after deliberation. The trial court found that the defense presented substantial evidence through two qualified forensic psychiatrists that Defendant suffered from a mental disease or defect at the time of the homicides. However, the trial court concluded that the two expert witnesses were "not credible in that the diagnoses were based primarily on witnesses' observations after the children were killed." Thus, the trial court held that Defendant's evidence was insufficient to rebut the legal presumption of sanity. The court found Defendant guilty and denied his motions for judgment of acquittal. On May 25, 2007, the trial court sentenced Defendant to two concurrent terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Defendant appeals.

Standard of Review

In a court-tried case, the sufficiency of the evidence is determined by the same standard as in a jury-tried case. State v. Harris, 774 S.W.2d 487, 491 (Mo. App. E.D.1989). The State must establish beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant committed each element of the offense charged. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 362, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). The relevant question on review of the sufficiency of evidence is whether, "after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (emphasis in original).

Discussion

In his first point on appeal, Defendant claims the trial court erred in denying his motions for judgment of acquittal because the defense established by a preponderance of the evidence that Defendant lacked responsibility for his actions because he suffered from a mental disease at the time of the charged criminal conduct.

A. Expert Witness Testimony

Dr. Bruce Harry, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the defense, examined Defendant approximately one year after the deaths of Toni and Kanyé. In Dr. Harry's opinion, Defendant suffered from Psychotic Disorder Not Otherwise Specified when he killed his children. Dr. Harry concluded that, as a result of this condition, Defendant was not able to appreciate the nature, quality, and wrongfulness of his actions at the time of the crimes.

Dr. Harry based his conclusion that Defendant suffered from a temporary psychotic disorder on Defendant's: 1) disorganized speech; 2) disorganized behavior, which included foaming at the mouth and wandering around; 3) commission of the crimes during daylight and in plain sight; 4) failure to try to clean himself; 5) characterization as "OBS violent" by law enforcement and the police officers' request for a CIT officer, an officer specialized in working with mentally ill individuals in severe distress; 6) refusal to yield to uniformed law enforcement officers in the face of lethal cover and threat of Taser application; and 7) almost immediate receipt of antipsychotic medication from EMS. Dr. Harry weighed these factors against those indicating that Defendant was able to understand the nature, quality, and wrongfulness of his actions, which included the following facts: 1) ...