State v. Sanders-Ford
Decision Date | 25 September 2017 |
Docket Number | No. SD 34544.,SD 34544. |
Citation | 527 S.W.3d 223 |
Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Connie R. SANDERS-FORD, Appellant. |
Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Appellant's attorney: Margaret M. Johnston, Jefferson City.
Respondent's attorneys: Joshua D. Hawley, Atty. Gen., and Evan J. Buchheim, Asst. Atty. Gen.
Appellant ("Defendant") killed her former lover ("Victim") and was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. She complains that (1) the state failed to show that she deliberated before the slaying, and (2) the trial court erred in not granting a mistrial. We affirm the convictions.
Victim's wife was fixing supper at home when Defendant walked in, introduced herself, said she and Victim had "been having an affair for over a year" and "I'm here to tell you so that he can leave you," called Victim's wife "pathetic," then spent the next month trying to break up the marriage:
Meanwhile, Victim sought to sever financial ties with Defendant,2 then he, his wife, and his son all obtained ex parte orders of protection against her. Later that day, Defendant confronted Victim at his son's house and threatened to shoot Victim and his son unless the orders of protection were dropped.
Two days before the hearing date on full orders of protection against Defendant, she shot Victim in the chest at the front door to his home. As he succumbed, Defendant fled to a friend's house, confessed what she had done, and sought to call an attorney.
Defendant asks us to declare her guilty of only second-degree murder, urging that there was no proof that she deliberated before the slaying.
State v. Attwood, 294 S.W.3d 144, 145 (Mo. App. 2009).3 "Deliberation is not a question of time—an instant is sufficient—and the reference to ‘cool reflection’ does not require that the defendant be detached or disinterested." State v. Nathan, 404 S.W.3d 253, 266 (Mo. banc 2013). "Instead, the element of deliberation serves to ensure that the jury believes the defendant acted deliberately, consciously and not reflexively," id., and may be inferred from circumstances surrounding the crime. State v. Dailey, 456 S.W.3d 854, 857 (Mo. App. 2014). We credit all evidence and reasonable inferences tending to show deliberation to determine whether reasonable jurors could find that element met beyond a reasonable doubt. See Stacy , 913 S.W.2d at 386.
Add to these Defendant's prior threats to shoot or kill Victim, and "[w]hile the jury was not compelled to find deliberation from the evidence, the evidence was clearly sufficient to allow the jury to draw this inference." State v. Johns, 34 S.W.3d 93, 111 (Mo. banc 2000). Point I fails.
Victim's wife testified that Defendant had struck Victim on one of her troublemaking visits first bullet-pointed above, then clarified that Victim...
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