State v. Paige

• Decision Date: 10 November 1969
• Docket Number: No. 54170,No. 1,54170,1
• Citation: 446 S.W.2d 798
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. William PAIGE, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 798

446 S.W.2d 798

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. William PAIGE, Appellant.

No. 54170.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 1.

Nov. 10, 1969.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Gene E. Voigts, First Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Robert B. Randolph, St. Joseph, for appellant.

HIGGINS, Commissioner.

William Paige was convicted by a jury of murder, second degree; his punishment was assessed at 10-years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, and sentence and judgment were rendered accordingly. §§ 559.020 and 559.030, V.A.M.S.

In question is the sufficiency of evidence to sustain the conviction.

William Paige was charged with the murder of his wife, JoAnn Paige, on or about July 8, 1967, by shooting her with a pistol. JoAnn disappeared in the early morning of July 8, 1967, and, on February 12, 1968, human skeletal remains were found which, under the state's theory of the case, were the remains of JoAnn Paige. Appellant concedes 'all events concerning this case occurred in St. Joseph (Buchanan County), Missouri.'

William and JoAnn Paige had been married twelve years at the time of her disappearance. He was 33 years of age, she was 27, and they have five children, ages five to twelve. On February 20, 1967, she filed suit for divorce and, on July 5, 1967, she received temporary allowances for support. Although the divorce was pending, JoAnn and William lived in the same house.

Between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m., July 7, 1967, Joyce Broadus, JoAnn's sister, and Cornelia Stillman, her mother, met JoAnn at the Casa Loma Tavern where they drank beer until 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. While in the lavatory at Casa Loma, JoAnn showed Joyce a 'black small caliber gun, I would say a .22, and had a pearl handle on it,' which JoAnn was carrying wrapped in a black scarf in her black, patent leather purse.

JoAnn, Joyce, and Cornelia left Casa Loma and went in Cornelia's automobile to Joyce's home where Joyce changed clothes and the group was met by Joyce's boy friend, Francis Starr. The four of them proceeded to the Paige home, JoAnn and Cornelia in Cornelia's car and Joyce and Francis riding together. JoAnn changed into a green flowered sack dress and gold shoes decorated with sequins. She also wore a red wig, watch, wedding, ring, engagement ring, and pearl necklace, and continued to carry her black, patent leather bag. The party left about 9:45 p.m. in the Starr automobile for the American Legion Club.

Upon arrival at the Legion Club, William Paige was seen parking his car across the street. The party went into the club, sat at a table together, and bought beer. William came to the table and asked JoAnn for some money for leer. She gave him some money; he went to the bar and purchased beer and came to the table. When he sat near JoAnn she moved to the other side of the table and he went to the bar. After drinking two beers each, the party of four proceeded to leave the club. As they walked past the bar, William got up and went down the stairs and outside ahead of them. He grabbed JoAnn's arm and she told him 'that they were getting a divorce and that he knew he wasn't supposed to be around her and she wanted him to stop bothering her, and she asked 'What are you going to do when the divorce is final? and Mr. Paige said 'There is nothing final yet. " William released JoAnn's arm and she and Joyce crossed the street to Big John's Cafe. William followed and had an unheard conversation with JoAnn. The girls went to the rest room and, when they returned, William was gone.

JoAnn and Joyce left Big John's about 2:00 a.m., July 8, 1967, and crossed the street to Milton Bundy's Bar and rejoined Cornelia and Francis. They met Richard Massey, a friend of Joyce's, and she arranged for him to take JoAnn to Joyce's home. JoAnn and Richard left Bundy's between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. in his black convertible automobile. Neither Joyce nor Cornelia ever saw JoAnn alive again.

Joyce, Cornelia, and Francis remained at Bundy's until about 5:15 a.m., when they went to the Paige home to get Cornelia's automobile. William Paige came from the Paige home, looked into the Starr automobile, and returned to the house. Joyce and Francis went to Joyce's home, arriving a little after 6:00 a.m., and found that JoAnn was not there. Around 7:30 a.m., Joyce called the Paige home and learned JoAnn was not there and, later that day, she reported to the police that JoAnn was missing.

Richard Massey had been JoAnn and William earlier at the American Legion Club. He drank bourbon at the Legion and later at Bundy's where he agreed with Joyce to take JoAnn to Joyce's home. He left with JoAnn at about 5:30 a.m., drove to a filling station for gasoline and air, and then drove to the Seitz Packing Company parking lot, arriving about 6:00 a.m. Richard was employed at Seitz and his check-in time was 7:01 a.m. He left JoAnn in his car and went into the plant to change into his work clothes. About 6:50 a.m., he went to his car to roll up the windows. JoAnn was still in his car. As he started back to the plant, William Paige drove up the driveway 'somewhat fast I would say' and drove off into the sewer. William was in the sewer three or four minutes, then drove out, parked in front of Richard's car, bot out and asked Richard how JoAnn got there. William said nothing else to him. Richard asked William to move his car, which he did, parking it at the side of Richard's car. Richard went into the plant, leaving JoAnn in his car and William in the Paige car. He 'punched in' at 7:01 a.m., and two or three minutes later he saw the Paige automobile leaving with William driving and JoAnn beside him in the front seat. He never saw JoAnn again.

JoAnn was described as being 5 4 1/2 in height, 95 to 100 pounds in weight, and her upper front left tooth was gold capped.

On February 12, 1968, the superintendent of the St. Joseph stockyards, while removing a manure pile, found a human skeleton on a manure pile east of the Seitz Packing Company and near a ready-mix concrete plant. Found on or near the remains were shoes, dress, and other clothing, red wig, pearl necklace, gold tooth, and black scarf identified as the clothing and apparel worn by JoAnn when last seen alive. Her black bag, watch, and rings never were found.

Sergeant James Rhoades of the Missouri State Highway Patrol removed the remains and other items from the manure pile. The area had a growth of horseweeds six feet in height. He took the skeleton to the Methodist Hospital where Dr. M. E. Grimes, a physician and surgeon and coroner of Buchanan County, made an examination. He found a small hole on the right said of the skull and a metal slug 'about one centimeter by a half centimeter in size and had the consistency of soft metal' inside the skull. In his opinion, the metal slug was the cause of death. He also noted the upper gold incisor tooth in the skeleton.

Sergeant Rhoades later delivered the skeleton to John Edland, M.D., pathologist at University of Missouri Medical School. He found the skeleton to be that of a Negro female in the early twenties or thirties, slight build, 90 to 100 pounds in weight, 5 2 or 5 3 in height. When articulated, the skeleton measured 61 1/2 inches. His opinion was that a guanshot wound in the head produced death. He found the upper left incisor tooth covered with a gold cap.

Kenneth Miller of the Missouri State Highway Patrol technical laboratory was of the opinion that the metal slug removed from the skull of the skeleton was the remnant of a .22-caliber lubaloy bullet. It weighed 10.05 grains and .22-caliber short bullets weigh 29 grains.

Buchanan County circuit clerk records showed that JoAnn Paige was given a permit June 29, 1967, to purchase a '.22 caliber Rohm (pistol), Serial No. 1062196.'

Cornelia Stillman saw JoAnn's pistol in the early morning of her disappearance while they were seated at a booth in Bundy's Bar. It was 'pearl handled and black' and was in JoAnn's black patent leather purse wrapped in a black scarf. Sometime after the disappearance, one of the Paige children called and told Mrs. Stillman he had found a gun. She went to the Paige home and the gun was 'on the dufold pillow in a brown sack.' It was the same gun she had seen at Bundy's Bar in JoAnn's purse. She gave it to Glenn Thomas, Chief of Detectives of the St. Joseph Police Department, who acknowledged that Mrs. Stillman delivered a '22 caliber Rohm' revolver to him sometime between July 9 and September 13, 1967.

On the same day, and after Cornelia delivered the gun to Chief Thomas, William Paige was picked up by police on request of the prosecuting attorney. The was July 21, 1967. William had been questioned previously about his wife's disappearance on July 9, 1967. When he learned JoAnn's gun had been delivered to the police, he made several requests of the prosecuting attorney's office and the police for it. The police ultimately gave the gun to him and it was never again in possession of the authorities.

William Paige was employed at Westab Company in St. Joseph. His work shift for July 8, 1967, was from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pursuant to company policy of docking an employee one-fourth hour for every eight minutes his is late for work, William was paid for 7 1/4 hours of work July 8, 1967. Time records showing the exact time he reported for work were missing. William's testimony generally denied any concern over his wife's conduct on the evening and early morning July 7 and 8, 1967. He denied driving into the ditch at Seitz Packing Company. He stated he went into Seitz to call his foreman and tell him he would be late. When he returned to his automobile he did not see JoAnn and he left to go to his home and to work. His theory of the gun's disappearance was that it was stolen from the glove box of his automobile. On cross-examination, he acknowledged that he and JoAnn had not been as compatible as they should have been; that on one occasion he destroyed a new coat that JoAnn had...