State v. Roper

• Decision Date: 29 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. WD 62613.,WD 62613.
• Citation: 136 S.W.3d 891
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Christopher Todd ROPER, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

136 S.W.3d 891

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Christopher Todd ROPER, Appellant.

No. WD 62613.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

June 29, 2004.

Kent Denzel, State Public Defender Office, Columbia, for appellant.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Andrea Kaye Spillars, Charnette D. Douglass, Office of Attorney General, Jefferson City, for respondent.

RONALD R. HOLLIGER, Judge.

Todd Roper appeals his convictions of numerous offenses, including forcible sodomy, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, and multiple charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He argues that the trial court committed three errors. First, he contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal on one of the first-degree assault charges, based upon a claim of insufficiency of the evidence. Second, he argues that the trial court erred in refusing to permit him to introduce into evidence a greeting card sent to him by the victim. Third, he claims that the trial court erred in failing to take sua sponte action with regard to the State's improper cross-examination of him, following his testimony on direct examination. We find that the prosecutor was guilty of serious misconduct but under the plain error standard there was no manifest injustice. We find no reversible error in the other points and, therefore, affirm the convictions.

Factual and Procedural Background

Todd Roper and Melinda Trenary¹ first met in January 2001, began a relationship roughly three months later, and subsequently moved in together in August 2001. Their relationship was not a placid one. Roper allegedly assaulted Trenary in November 2001, leading to the filing of criminal charges against him. He was ultimately released on bond with a condition that he avoid contact with Trenary. Despite that bond condition, he continued to live with her after his conditional release. In early 2002, though, Roper moved to a different residence.

On February 6, 2002, Roper called Trenary to determine whether she intended to testify against him regarding the November 2001 assault charge. She told him that she had not been contacted about the case, but would testify if she was. Roper became upset and verbally abusive on the phone, telling her that she would be ruining his life. When asked whether he was threatening her, Roper said that she could "take it" as she wanted. Trenary hung up the phone at that point, and Roper tried calling back multiple times, until she turned off the ringer to the phone.

Shortly after Roper moved out of Trenary's apartment, she had begun spending time before and after work with a co-worker, Charles White. On the afternoon after Trenary had her phone conversation with Roper, she and White had their first "formal" date. After the date, they returned to Trenary's apartment. The apartment had two entrances: one through the front entry of the house and the front stairs, the other through a rear stairwell and deck, which she used as her main entrance to the apartment.

After arriving at her apartment, Trenary changed into a nightgown, and the two sat on her bed, talking and playing cards. Trenary was sitting at the head of the bed, with her back against the wall, while White lay across the foot of the bed, facing her. White's back was to the main doorway to the bedroom. After thirty minutes of cards, Trenary leaned over to kiss White, when she heard a creaking sound from the apartment floor.

At that point, Roper rushed into the bedroom, wielding a board over his shoulder like a baseball bat. Trenary cried out in warning, but Roper struck White in the head with the board, just as White was turning around toward Roper. The blow opened a broad laceration in White's forehead that bled profusely.

Roper attempted to grab Trenary, yelling "I'll kill you, Bitch." White struggled with him, to prevent Roper from reaching her. While the two were grappling, Trenary attempted to call the police on the bedroom phone, but was unable to get a dial tone. She attempted to get out of the bedroom, but Roper cut her off each time she started to move toward one of the bedroom doors. Roper told White during the struggle that it had nothing to do with him, that "he had warned" her and "that he wasn't going to jail over nothing, that he was going to kill [her]."

Trenary attempted to grab the board that Roper was still carrying. At that point, Roper managed to take hold of Trenary's hair and used it to pull her down to her knees, while he continued to fight with White. In addition to his physical battle with White, Roper also started kicking Trenary. The two fought until they were tired. White unsuccessfully tried to convince Roper to let him go to the hospital. He reiterated his intention to kill Trenary. Becoming agitated again, Roper told White "I had a—I should have brought my gun in here with me, and I have a bullet for you. I'll kill you, and if I have to, I'll kill myself." Roper started to drag Trenary out of the bedroom, at which point White resumed the fight with Roper. During this second stage of the confrontation, White felt "two sharp blows" to his back. He would later learn at the hospital that Roper had stabbed him.

The confrontation continued, with Roper dragging Trenary through the hallway toward the kitchen and the rear entry. As Trenary was pulled past the door, she unlocked it, hoping to escape. Roper noticed her action and began to beat her again. She managed to get the door open, and yelled at White "just go and get me some help," at which point White escaped from the apartment.

Immediately after White fled, Roper shut and relocked the door. He grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Then, still holding Trenary by the hair and struggling with her, he pulled a nearby dresser across the door to block it from opening, preventing entry from the outside. He then similarly blocked the front entrance to Trenary's apartment. Roper repeatedly told Trenary that she was going to die. Meanwhile, White had paused, listening to the continuing battle inside the apartment, as Roper barricaded himself and Trenary in the apartment. White then went down the steps and saw a police car driven by Boonville Police Sergeant Jere Lang passing by on the street. White flagged the vehicle down. Lang put White in the car and called for assistance before taking him to the hospital.

When the police arrived at the apartment Roper slid down and sat against a wall, placing Trenary in front of him. He held her hair in one hand and the kitchen knife in the other, blade pressed against her throat. When the police officers shouted out, asking what was going on, Roper replied, "I'm going to kill this bitch." The officers tried to persuade Roper to come out and talk about it, but he refused, telling them that he would kill her if they entered the apartment and would kill himself, if necessary.

The officers testified that Roper was angry and used extensive profanity in his exchanges with them. One of the officers, Corporal Abel, told Roper that he needed to see that Trenary was okay. Roper pushed her face against a window with her next to him. The officer could see blood on Trenary's face, but could not make out the extent of her injuries. Some time later, additional officers arrived on the scene, including Lieutenant Welliver, who had known Roper since they were young, who continued to try to talk to Roper, to no avail.

The standoff continued into the following morning. The Highway Patrol Special Emergency Response Team (SERT) joined Lieutenant Welliver and the other local police officers in attempting to bring the situation to a close. During that time, Welliver heard Trenary scream numerous times as if in pain. Roper continued to drag Trenary around the apartment by her hair. In the process, he pulled entire clumps of hair out of her head. Roper also cut another swath of hair off of her head with a knife. He would also keep her between him and doors and windows, apparently fearing that the law enforcement officers would otherwise shoot him.

Roper usually kept a knife at Trenary's neck. When pressured by the police, he would tell them to "back off," pressing the knife harder against her throat. At other points, Roper would pass the knife across Trenary's body. He also struck her with both the blade and the handle of the knife. On one of those occasions, he hit her with enough force to break off the knife's handle, forcing him to go to the kitchen for a replacement. He also hit her with his hands on numerous occasions. Trenary testified that Roper struck her hard enough in the head at various points that she "would just go black for a minute."

Despite the sub-freezing temperatures outside, Roper had turned off the heat to the apartment, to help him stay awake. When Trenary asked to have a robe or blanket to keep warm, he instead tore her nightgown off, and she remained unclothed for the remainder of the night. After sunrise, Trenary was sitting "hunched up" in an attempt to stay warm. Roper ordered her to sit up and to stretch her legs out. He then took a beer bottle, telling her that, "Since I interrupted what you were planning on doing," apparently regarding Mr. White, "this should do it for you." Trenary refused, and another struggle began, but Roper struck her and overpowered her. He proceeded to penetrate her a number of times with the neck of the bottle.

Sometime after 7:00 A.M., the law enforcement officers tried one more time to initiate negotiations with Roper. While Lieutenant Welliver was on the back porch talking with Roper, the SERT team made a tactical entry through the apartment's front entrance. When Roper heard noises from the front of the apartment, he pulled Trenary to the bedroom doorway. The officers continued to enter the apartment, and confronted Roper with firearms drawn. Roper was standing in the doorway, holding Trenary up by her hair and pressing a knife against her throat. In a single motion, he pushed...