State v. Sanchez, No. 26461 (MO 10/5/2005)
| Decision Date | 05 October 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 26461,26461 |
| Parties | STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent, v. CHARLES L. SANCHEZ, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Greene County, Missouri, Honorable Don E. Burrell, Judge.
Ellen H. Flottman, for Appellant.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon & Lisa M. Kennedy, for Respondent.
Appellant Charles Sanchez ("Appellant") appeals his convictions by a jury for two counts of kidnapping pursuant to section 565.110; two counts of armed criminal action pursuant to section 571.015; one count of unlawful use of a weapon pursuant to section 571.030.1(4); and one count of arson in the first degree pursuant to section 569.040.1 Appellant was sentenced by the trial court as a prior and persistent offender per section 558.016 to a total of twenty-two years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Appellant alleges six points of trial court error discussed below. The judgment and sentence of the trial court is affirmed.
Reviewing the facts and evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict, State v. Tyra, 153 S.W.3d 341, 344 (Mo.App. 2005), the record reveals that in May of 2001 Appellant resided in a home in Springfield, Missouri, with his girlfriend, Toni Selle ("Toni"); their five-month-old child, Renee Sanchez ("Renee"); and Toni's four-year-old son from a previous relationship, Steven Johnson ("Stevie").2 On May 30, 2001, Toni and Appellant had a disagreement because Appellant had not come home the previous evening. Toni informed him that "if he was going to be out with his friends partying all night . . . [she] wasn't going to stick around." Toni then left the residence to take Stevie to daycare. When Toni returned to the house, she took a nap and began to pack her belongings. She again spoke with Appellant about their situation and informed him that she was leaving him and moving out.
At around three o'clock that afternoon, Toni went to pick Stevie up from daycare and when she returned to the residence Appellant was still there. Shortly thereafter, Appellant informed Toni that he had to leave "to go get rid of a gun." When Appellant returned to the home about ten minutes later, he "slammed the front door," pulled out a gun, and told Toni "nobody [was] leaving that house." According to Toni's trial testimony, Appellant, who was acting nervous and paranoid, told her "that there [were] people following him ten cars back;" that "if anybody tried to come in the house he was going to burn down the house and take them out . . . "; that people were "watching him;" and that "there was a torture room underneath the house" where people from California as well as people he worked with had been torturing children, including Renee. Toni tried to convince him to let her call someone to pick up the children.
Several hours later, Appellant allowed Toni to call her former in-laws, Dorothy ("Dottie") and Russell ("Russell") Hunsaker (collectively "the Hunsakers"), to come get Stevie. While Toni was on the phone with Dottie, Appellant alternatively held a gun against her head and her body. He told her not to say anything about the gun while she was on the phone. When the Hunsakers arrived at the home, Toni met them at the front door and Appellant stood directly behind her holding onto the back of her shirt. Toni, who was holding Renee in her arms, tried to mouth to Dottie that Appellant had a gun, but Dottie was unable to understand her. Toni asked Dottie if she could go with her, but Appellant told her she could not leave. Nevertheless, Toni stepped forward onto the porch. When she did so, Appellant pulled her back inside by the shirt. Toni turned around and tried to hit Appellant but she missed and accidentally dropped Renee. Appellant pushed Toni down onto the floor and Russell, who had been waiting outside, rushed forward to help Toni. Appellant pointed his gun at Russell and said "[g]et the hell out of the house or I`ll shoot you." Russell complied with Appellant's order. When the Hunsakers left the house with Stevie, they went to a nearby gas station and called the police.
After the Hunsakers left the home, Appellant blocked the front door with a large chair, placed some other items against the back door, and forced Toni to "call the police, or 911, and tell them there was nothing wrong." While Toni was on the phone with the police, Appellant made her sit on his lap so that he could hold the gun to her back. After the phone call, Appellant pulled all of the window shades in the house down and put a comforter over one of the windows. As he was hanging the comforter in the window, Appellant saw police officers arriving outside.
Appellant continued to hold Toni against her will throughout the night. He placed a chair in the hallway where he could see both entrances to the home and he forced Toni to sit on his lap holding the baby. Appellant did not allow Toni to move around the house, eat, or get up to use the bathroom. At some point, Appellant brought a can of gasoline in from the garage and set it on the living room floor. Appellant told Toni that the police were involved in the child abuse and torture ring he had discussed earlier and that he wanted the local television crews to come to the home so he could expose the cult-like corruption he believed was occurring. In fact, Appellant made Toni call Dottie and tell her to invite the television crews to come to the scene. He promised that if the camera crews arrived, he would let everyone go. Additionally, Appellant told Toni to call her father and grandmother so she could "tell them good-bye."
Meanwhile, outside the home, the police presence expanded with the arrival of the police department's crisis negotiation and strategic response teams. John Truman ("Truman"), a crisis negotiator, arrived and was informed that Appellant was armed and possibly under the influence of a narcotic drug. Truman and the other police negotiators were able to speak with both Appellant and Toni by telephone throughout the night. During that time, Appellant not only threatened the negotiators but also told them that there were "caverns under the ground of the house, caverns underneath the neighborhood . . . ;" that there was a police conspiracy to hide the existence of these tunnels under his house; that "the police were not there to help him, they were only there to protect the evil people of this world;" and that there was "hair growing out of the walls of these tunnels." Appellant informed one of the police officers that "he had some type of message that he wanted to relay" and that "if he could see his door on TV and have a live camera on his house, that he would come out with everybody;" however, negotiations broke down and no such action was taken.
At some point, Appellant agreed to let Toni's grandmother come to the house and pick up Renee. When Toni's grandmother arrived, Appellant opened the front door, to allow Toni to place Renee, who was in her car seat, and a diaper bag out onto the porch. Prior to opening the door, Appellant warned Toni that if she tried to escape he would shoot her and he placed the gun against her back. Once Toni set the car seat on the porch, Appellant pulled her back into the house by the back of her shirt and slammed the door. A police officer then came onto the porch and retrieved Renee.
Thereafter, while Toni was on the phone with Truman, Truman told her that she needed to try to get herself out of the house, because the police did not yet have a plan to rescue her. A few minutes later, Toni, who had not been allowed to go to the bathroom since before the ordeal began, asked Appellant, while he was on the phone with the negotiator, if she could use the bathroom. Appellant got off the phone and walked down the hallway to the bathroom with her. Toni had just entered the bathroom when the phone rang in the living room and Appellant "ran back down the hallway." Toni then threw open the bathroom window and jumped out. She ran toward the police officers and was taken to safety.
When Appellant realized Toni had escaped, he became irate, threatened to burn the house down, and threatened to take a couple of police officers with him. Moments later, Truman, who was on the phone with Appellant, heard liquid sloshing in a can as they talked and another officer heard Appellant say "I poured gas all over the place, I'm going to torch it." The front of the house then went up in flames. Due to the fire, police officers started evacuating people from neighboring houses.
Appellant then opened the back door of the garage and laid down in the doorway. When police yelled for Appellant to come all the way out of the burning house, Appellant ran into the yard holding a gun to his head. After a struggle with police officers, Appellant was arrested.
A jury trial was held on June 7, 8, and 9, 2004, after which Appellant was convicted and sentenced by the trial court. This appeal followed.
In his first point relied on, Appellant maintains the trial court erred in sentencing Appellant on two separate counts of kidnapping. Appellant argues that kidnapping is "a continuing course of conduct despite the [S]tate's charging Count I as unlawfully confining Toni for the purpose of inflicting physical injury on or terrorizing her and Count IV as unlawfully confining Toni and Renee for the purpose of using them as a shield or hostage."
Appellant was charged by Amended Felony Information with two counts of committing the class B felony of kidnapping, a violation of section 565.110. Specifically, Count I charged "that on or about the 30th day of May, 2001 . . . [Appellant] unlawfully confined Toni Selle without her consent for a substantial period of time, for the purpose of inflicting physical injury on or terrorizing Toni Selle." Count IV, which also charged Appellant with kidnapping, stated that "on or about the 30th day of May, 2001 . . . [Appellant] unlawfully confined Toni...
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