State v. Sykes
| Decision Date | 11 November 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 49704,49704,2 |
| Citation | 372 S.W.2d 24 |
| Parties | STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Fred SYKES, Jr., Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Jack L. Koehr, St. Louis, for appellant.
Thomas F. Eagleton, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Burton H. Shostak, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Louis, for respondent.
The defendant has appealed from a conviction of murder in the first degree. The sentence assessed by the jury was life imprisonment. No brief has been filed by the defendant and the case is before us on the transcript of the record and the state's brief.
In this situation our review extends to the assignments of error properly preserved in the motion for new trial and to the essential portions of the record. S.Ct. Rules 27.20 and 28.02, V.A.M.R.; State v. Slicker, Mo., 342 S.W.2d 946, 947. The defendant's first contention is that the trial court erred in overruling defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal offered at the close of the state's case and again at the close of the entire case. When the defendant as here offers evidence and testifies in his own behalf, the defendant's right to claim error in the overruling of his motion for acquittal at the close of the state's case is waived, and the submissibility of the case must be considered upon the entire evidence. State v. Davis, Mo., 365 S.W.2d 577, 579.
Around noontime on January 3, 1962, Walter Chappel, a 76-year-old colored man came out of a drug store on the southeast corner of Jefferson and Franklin in the City of St. Louis, crossed Franklin at the intersection and walked northwardly on the east side of Jefferson. The old Jefferson Bank building was on the northeast corner and behind it a parking lot. When Mr. Chappel was in the vicinity of the rear of the building and the parking lot, he was accosted from behind by the defendant. A scuffle ensued during which Mr. Chappel fell to the sidewalk after being struck by the defendant. The defendant then raised Mr. Chappel from the sidewalk to his feet and again struck him. When knocked down the second time, Mr. Chappel's head struck an iron post by the parking lot. The defendant stooped down, put his hand in Mr. Chappel's right trouser pocket and removed some money. The defendant then went north on Jefferson and turned into Cole Avenue leaving the injured Mr. Chappel on the sidewalk.
The incident was witnessed by Willie Paul Bell, Filmore Cozart and James Morton, all of whom testified for the state and identified the defendant as Mr. Chappel's assailant. After the defendant left the scene, another man came along and also took money from Mr. Chappel's pocket but did not hit or strike the injured man. The witness Morton who was making a delivery to the rear of the old Jefferson Bank building remonstrated with the defendant and told him to give back the old man's money. The defendant, however, reached in his pocket in a threatening manner as if to get a knife whereupon witness Morton went into a nearby building and called the police. The witness Bell had known the defendant personally for about two and one-half years and furnished his name to the police officers. Mr. Chappel was taken to a city hospital where he remained in a semi-conscious and irrational condition until January 11, 1962, when he died.
Dr. Glennon Schafer, chief resident surgeon of the city hospital, was in charge of Mr. Chappel and testified that the cause of his death was a cerebral hemorrhage, which was a bleeding within the substance of the brain. A spinal tap taken on the day Mr. Chappel was admitted to the hospital indicated that there was bleeding in his central nervous system. The doctor testified that Mr. Chappel's blood vessels were weakened by disease and that a blow on his head was likely to produce the cerebral hemorrhage which caused his death. Dr. John J. Thomas, pathologist for the coroner of the City of St. Louis, made a post-mortem examination and determined that Mr. Chappel's death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. He further testified that any blow to the head might cause the blood vessels to rupture where the person struck was suffering from sclerosis of the brain, and that excitement as well as sudden elevation or diminution of the blood pressure could produce a cerebral hemorrhage and consequent death.
The defendant's father testified that he was ill with the flu on January 3, 1962, and that he gave his Social Security check to the defendant that morning with instructions to go downtown and pay rent, utility and other bills; that his son left 'close to twelve o'clock' and returned about 3 p. m. with the exact change. Receipted bills were introduced in evidence. The defendant testified that he walked downtown, that he went by the northeast corner of Jefferson and Franklin, saw an old man on the sidewalk and tried to lift and rest him against the fence around the parking lot. He denied, however, that he struck the old man or took any of his money.
In determining the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction, the appellate court must consider as true the evidence favorable to the state and favorable inferences that can reasonably be drawn therefrom, and evidence to the contrary must be rejected. State v. Davis, Mo., 365 S.W.2d 577, 578; State v. Reagan, Mo., 328 S.W.2d 26, 29.
The evidence was clearly sufficient to prove that Mr. Chappel was assaulted and mortally wounded by the defendant while the defendant was in the act of robbing Mr. Chappel and that the victim died as the result of the wounds inflicted by the defendant. The trial court did not err in refusing to sustain the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal. State v. Morris, Mo., 307 S.W.2d 667, 673; State v. Kauffman, 329 Mo. 813, 46 S.W.2d 843, 848; State v. Hyland, 144 Mo. 302, 46 S.W. 195, 198; State v. Trent, Mo., 278 S.W. 676, 678.
Akin to the questions just disposed of is the fifth specification of the motion for new trial which charges that the verdict was against the substantial evidence in that there was no direct evidence to show that the defendant...
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