State v. Neal
| Decision Date | 25 January 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. WD 70607.,WD 70607. |
| Citation | 328 S.W.3d 374 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Lawrence E. NEAL, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Ruth B. Sanders, Kansas City, MO, for appellant.
Shaun J. Mackelprang and Jamie P. Rasmussen, Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.
Before Division Three: VICTOR C. HOWARD, Presiding Judge, THOMAS H. NEWTON, Judge and GARY D. WITT, Judge.
Lawrence Neal ("Neal") was convicted after a jury trial of one count of forcible rape and one count of robbery in the first degree. Neal appeals the trial court's overruling of his motions for judgment of acquittal as to both charges. Further, Neal argues the trial court plainly erred in submitting a deficient jury instruction for robbery in the first degree. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
Neal was convicted after a jury trial in the Jackson County Circuit Court of one count of forcible rape, Section 566.030,2 and one count of robbery in the first degree, Section 569.020. Neal was acquitted, by the jury, of one count of forcible sodomy, Section 566.060.
On January 14, 2008, K.L.3 drove her vehicle to pick up her boyfriend Benjamin Robbins ("Robbins") from work when her car stalled at 82nd and Troost. Neal, a stranger, got into K.L.'s vehicle uninvited. K.L. did not ask Neal to get out of the car because she was shocked and scared. K.L. agreed to give Neal a ride home. After arriving in Neal's parking lot, he proceeded to take K.L.'s keys out of the ignition, preventing her from leaving. Neal told K.L. he needed money, and he then proceeded to dump the contents of her purse onto the front seat of the vehicle. K.L. did not have any money and she could not recall the exact words said by Neal, but he told her she had to go up to the apartment. Neal grabbed K.L.'s arm after she exited the car and led her up to the apartment. Neal told K.L., as theywalked up to the apartment, "[i]f anyone asks, you're my girlfriend and you smoke dope." Neal led her past a "short white woman," who looked to be angry with Neal, and into a bedroom.
Neal told K.L. to get undressed. She initially refused. Neal then told her she could leave if she did what he wanted. There was a knife on the night stand, and then Neal put something that appeared to be a gun on the dresser. Neal threatened to kill her. Neal then had sexual intercourse with K.L. K.L. testified she felt she had no choice in the matter. K.L. did not fight off Neal because she did not want him to hurt her. She did not feel anyone would have helped her if she had screamed or asked for help.
After the sexual intercourse, Neal told K.L. he needed money and asked her for her ATM card. K.L. told him she did not have one but did have checks. He told her to go to Price Chopper to cash a check. Neal told K.L. "to act right" and "[d]on't do anything stupid" as they walked toward the store. K.L. purchased some soda and wrote a check at Price Chopper for fifty dollars over the purchase price. K.L. gave the money to Neal when they arrived back in the vehicle. Neal told K.L. to go back to his apartment so that she could douche to get his DNA off of her.
K.L. drove back to the apartment, and once inside, Neal forced her to smoke crack. Neal attempted to have sexual intercourse with K.L. again but he could not maintain an erection. Neal then told her to perform oral sex on him, which she did. K.L. told Neal that she could get more money from her boyfriend when she picked him up from work. Neal told her that he would ride with K.L. Neal and K.L. agreed to tell K.L.'s boyfriend, Robbins, that the vehicle had broken down and Neal was riding with K.L. to make sure it did not break down again.
When K.L. picked up Robbins two hours late from work, Neal was in the car. Robbins was upset, as he had been calling and texting K.L. After picking Robbins up, K.L. dropped Neal off at his apartment complex. K.L. discreetly gave Neal back his crack pipe, which was in her purse, because she knew Robbins would be angry if he saw the pipe. After Neal departed, Robbins inquired as to what was going on, and K.L. started to cry and told Robbins that she had been raped. They went home and Robbins called 911.
K.L. was examined at a hospital and Neal's DNA was discovered from K.L.'s rape kit. Neal was tried before a jury and eventually sentenced to consecutive terms of thirty years incarceration for forcible rape and twenty-five years incarceration for first degree robbery. Neal now appeals.
In Point One, Neal argues the trial court erred in overruling his motion for judgment of acquittal as to Count I for forcible rape, because the State's evidence was insufficient for a reasonable juror to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as to each element of the crime because the State presented no evidence that Neal used forcible compulsion in connection with the sexual intercourse.4
Due process requires the State to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 361-64, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970); State v. Bowman, 311 S.W.3d 341, 343 (Mo.App. W.D.2010). Neal was charged under Section 566.030 with forcible rape. Section 566.030 provides "[a] person commits the crime of forcible rape if such person has sexual intercourse with another person by the use of forcible compulsion." "Forcible compulsion" means either "(a) Physical force that overcomes reasonable resistance; or (b) A threat, express or implied, that places a person in reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury or kidnapping of such person or another person." Section 556.061(12).
K.L.'s testimony does not directly establish that the sexual intercourse she had with Neal was the result of physical force. The State argues that the evidence supports the second factor of either an express or implied threat which caused K.L. to have a reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury, or kidnapping. Evidence of an explicit threat by Neal in connection with the rape was presented to the jury. There was evidence that Neal threatened to kill K.L. There was evidence that there was a knife on the nightstand and that Neal put something that looked like a gun on the dresser. K.L. testified that Neal took her into the apartment against her will and told her that she could not leave unless she did what he wanted. Therefore, a reasonable juror could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Neal explicitly threatened K.L. and placed her in a reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury, or kidnapping.
A reasonable juror could also have found beyond a reasonable doubt an implied threat to K.L. that placed K.L. in reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury, or kidnapping. In State v. Thiele, the Eastern District of this court upheld a conviction of forcible rape when the victim submitted to the defendant's sexual requests out of "fear of personal violence" in conjunction with minimal physical force that consisted of only grabbing the victim's arm. State v. Thiele, 935 S.W.2d 726, 728 (Mo.App. E.D.1996). 5 Although the court in Thiele found that the force used was sufficient for a jury to find physical force that overcame reasonable resistance, the court found further that the circumstances indicated that the victim was not a voluntary participant in the defendant's fantasy. The defendant's actions made the victim believe he had a gun, even though there was no express threat, and the victim's actual belief that the defendant was armed was sufficient to find an implied threat to satisfy the element of "forcible compulsion." Id. A reasonable belief of impending harm combined with some physicalforce is sufficient to sustain a conviction for forcible rape. Id.
Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the verdict, a reasonable juror could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that Neal's actions constituted an implied threat that placed K.L. in a reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury, or kidnapping. Here, K.L. testified to the following: Neal was an uninvited stranger that forced his presence upon her by entering her vehicle without her permission; he took her keys from the ignition so she could not leave; he made it clear he was looking for money and dumped out her purse; he grabbed her arm and led her into the apartment; weapons were located in the bedroom; he threatened to kill her; and after resisting getting undressed, Neal told K.L. she could leave "if [she] just did what he wanted." Considering the context and totality of events, a reasonable juror could have found both an express threat and that Neal's actions constituted an implied threat that placed K.L. in a reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury, or kidnapping. This is sufficient to satisfy the statutory definition of "forcible compulsion."
Point One is denied.
In Point Two, Neal argues the trial court erred in overruling Neal's motion for judgment of acquittal for robbery in the first degree in that the State did not submit sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all the elements of the offense.
Neal argues that there was not...
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