State v. Powell
| Decision Date | 20 November 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 70518,70518 |
| Citation | 798 S.W.2d 709 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Reginald L. POWELL, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Scott E. Walter, Clayton, for appellant.
William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., John M. Morris, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Defendant Reginald Love Powell, age 18 at the time of his killing Freddie Miller and Lee Miller, was jury-tried and convicted of two counts of first degree murder [ § 565.020, RSMo 1986 ] for the fatal stabbings of the Miller brothers, following a brutal beating of the victims during the course of a robbery. The jury could not agree on the matter of punishment and the trial judge, finding three statutory aggravating circumstances, sentenced defendant to death on both counts. Defendant's postconviction motion for relief was, after a lengthy evidentiary hearing, denied. Affirmed.
Initially, the Court notes that defendant's motion for a new trial contains 72 points and a number of subpoints as alleged assignments of error and, in addition, reiterates the substance of some twenty pretrial motions and arguments thereon. And, his brief avers 43 points plus subpoints as error. Many of the points are not properly preserved for appellate review. Some border on the frivolous and others are without support in the record. In addition, many of the contentions and allegations in the pretrial motions, motion for new trial, and brief herein, ignore decisions of this Court which have repeatedly rejected the same arguments. The Court suggests that scatter-load attacks do not comport with the rules of this Court and tend to obfuscate the ultimate issue of appellate review, namely, whether the defendant received a constitutionally mandated fair trial free of reversible error.
Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, State v. Guinan, 665 S.W.2d 325, 327 (Mo.banc), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873, 105 S.Ct. 227, 83 L.Ed.2d 156 (1984) the facts are as follows:
On the evening of November 14, 1986, the defendant had been drinking at a friend's house in the city of St. Louis. After about twenty minutes, defendant, Lee McDowell, Eric Times, and another youth nicknamed "Diamond" went to a liquor store, where they saw Freddie and Lee Miller, and asked them to purchase some liquor for them. Defendant was eighteen years old at the time, and his companions were sixteen or younger. After some argument, the Miller brothers refused defendant's request.
Some time later that evening, the group went to the apartment of a friend of defendant's, again seeking to procure some liquor. One of the Miller brothers also lived in the building, and the group encountered the two victims in the backyard. Both of the brothers were intoxicated, one so much so that he was having difficulty standing.
Defendant's stepbrother, Calvin Courtney, age fifteen, went to the building looking for one of his friends. Courtney was attempting to help the Miller brothers into the backyard when defendant arrived. Defendant asked Courtney who he was, and when Courtney replied, defendant said: "Oh, I didn't know who it was, because we were getting ready to rob you" and, "Man, I have been around all day robbing people."
Upon seeing the victims, defendant stated: "These niggers are who I had the squabble with right here, man" and he or one of the others said, "Let's rob the niggers." After one of the victims called the youths "punks," defendant pushed and kicked the brothers to the ground and said, "Get them." A brutal beating of the brothers followed.
While defendant kicked the two brothers in the face, chest and groin, Lee McDowell, Eric Times and "Diamond" joined in, beating the victims with bricks, boards and branches. When the victims tried to get up, the group kicked them back down. Calvin Courtney tried to get the defendant to stop. Defendant stopped for a minute, and Courtney told him who the victims were. Defendant said "My baby needs some Pampers" and resumed beating the two brothers. Lee Miller begged for his life, saying "You can beat me all you want, but don't kill me."
After the rest of the group had their fill and Lee and Freddie Miller were lying on the ground, defendant jumped up and down on the chests of both victims, breaking all but the top ribs of each. Defendant then searched the victims for valuables, pulling Lee Miller's pants down in the process. McDowell and Times joined in the search, which yielded only three dollars and a pack of cigarettes. The defendant remarked that this was the third person they had robbed that day and still had not gotten any money. After the beating and robbery of the Miller brothers, all of the persons present left the scene, leaving only the defendant and the two victims.
Prior to the robbery, the defendant had borrowed a butterfly knife (a martial arts weapon with handles that fold away from the blade) with a six inch blade from Eric Times. As Lee and Freddie Miller lay there, beaten, broken and bleeding, but still alive and moaning in pain, defendant Reginald Powell stabbed them three times each in the chest and abdomen, the stab wounds being from five to six inches in depth. Lee Miller apparently attempted to resist, as a laceration consistent with a "defense wound" was found on his right hand. Both brothers died from internal bleeding caused by the multiple stab wounds.
After stabbing the two brothers to death, the defendant caught up with McDowell, Times, "Diamond" and Courtney. He was carrying the bloody knife which he cleaned by sticking the blade into the ground, and had blood on his shoes. He told them that he had "stuck" and "stabbed" the victims, and said, "Don't bring no knife if you ain't going to use it."
The group proceeded to the home of defendant's aunt, where defendant cleaned the blood from his shoes and told his aunt how he had "jumped on some dudes" and beat them up. He was arrested on the street the next day, after Calvin Courtney had spoken with the police. After the police had advised the defendant on three occasions of his Miranda rights, he made a tape recorded statement, admitting to the murders and saying, "You know, we'll say I had the last--the last laugh."
In his principal point of error, defendant asserts that his tape recorded statement was improperly admitted into evidence because it was not made after a voluntary, knowing and intelligent waiver of his constitutional rights as required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Defendant does not contend that the statement was not voluntary, rather he asserts that he lacked the mental capacity to knowingly and intelligently waive his rights under the United States and Missouri Constitutions.
Defendant filed a motion prior to trial to suppress his recorded statement, alleging, inter alia, that his level of mental function was such that he was unable to understand and comprehend the written and verbal Miranda warnings given him. A suppression hearing was held and the trial court concluded defendant's statement was admissible under Miranda.
Defendant's attack upon his comprehension of the Miranda warnings consisted entirely of testimony from three psychological witnesses retained by the defense who administered various intelligence and comprehension tests to defendant. Based on these tests, which indicated in part that defendant had an I.Q. of between 65 and 83, the witnesses testified that the defendant had difficulty understanding complex sentences and would be unable to understand the Miranda warnings. No direct evidence was presented that defendant did not, in fact, understand the warnings. Not a one of these three witnesses read the Miranda warnings to defendant to ascertain if he understood them. Neither did they explore whether defendant was familiar with these rights by reason of previous criminal proceedings (defendant was on probation of a criminal conviction and another criminal charge was pending at the time of the killing of the Miller brothers) or watching television.
Detective Gooch of the St. Louis police department testified that he had given the defendant Miranda warnings three times prior to the time defendant made his statement. The first time was when defendant was arrested. The second time shortly after he arrived at the police station. And, the third time a short period later just before he made the statement. The last time is recorded on the tape of defendant's statement:
Q. You have the right to remain silent. Do you understand it sir?
A. Yes.
* * * * * *
Q. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand that sir?
A. Yes.
Q. You have a right to an attorney. Do you understand that, sir?
A. Yes.
Q. If you can't afford one, one will be applied [sic] to you by the state. Do you understand that?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you understand your rights?
A. Yes.
The defendant appeared to be reading along on the waiver form as the rights were explained to him, and he signed the waiver form after making the statement.
The court denied the motion, finding that And,
The requirement that a waiver of rights be knowing and intelligent does not mean that a defendant must know and understand all of the possible consequences of the waiver. Colorado v. Spring, 479 U.S. 564, 574-75, 107 S.Ct. 851, 857-58, 93 L.Ed.2d 954 (1987). Rather, it requires that the defendant understood the warnings themselves; "that he at all times knew that he could stand mute and request a lawyer, and that he was aware of the State's intention to use his statements to...
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