State v. Thornton, KCD

• Decision Date: 31 December 1975
• Docket Number: No. KCD,KCD
• Citation: 532 S.W.2d 37
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Robert James THORNTON, Appellant. 27179.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 37

532 S.W.2d 37

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Robert James THORNTON, Appellant.

No. KCD 27179.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Kansas City District.

Dec. 31, 1975.

Gary Eldredge, Kansas City, Lee M. Nation, Law Student, Certified, for appellant.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Philip M. Koppe, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Before SWOFFORD, P.J., and WELBORN and HIGGINS, Special Judges.

SWOFFORD, Presiding Judge.

This is a direct appeal from a conviction of manslaughter and a sentence of ten years imprisonment following a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Boone County, Missouri.

On January 8, 1970, at approximately 6:30 p.m., one James Bierley was found by ambulance attendants called to the scene alone in his quarters at 400 Hitt Street in Columbia, Missouri, on a bed, bleeding from multiple chest wounds. He was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m. by the Boone County Coroner, who, by autopsy, determined that within an hour before his death he had sustained six stab wounds in the chest and stomach, one of which penetrated the lung and the heart and was the direct cause of death.

The structure at 400 Hitt Street is a three-story residence converted into multiple rental units of rooms or apartments. Bierley occupied No. 301, and the defendant was also a resident at that address, occupying a room on the second floor.

On the night of January 8, 1970, the police conducted an investigation of the premises, during the course of which a knife was found in a wastebasket in a communal bathroom, covered with papers. This knife was described as a black bone handle Barlow saber knife. On the night of the homicide, the police questioned various residents of the address, including the defendant, who disclaimed any observations or knowledge of Bierley's homicide. When questioned the following day, January 9, 1970, the defendant told police conflicting stories as to his whereabouts at the time of the attack on Bierley.

During the course of the investigation, it was learned that the defendant owned a knife similar to the one found in the wastebasket, and on January 12, 1970, he consented to an interview by Columbia detectives at police headquarters. At that time, he was handed a written waiver of rights, read it aloud and signed it, stating he fully understood its contents. He thereupon admitted the ownership of a knife similar to a Barlow shown him, among others, except that the blade of his knife had been ground and the sample had not. The knife found in the wastebasket was not displayed to him because it was undergoing tests at Jefferson City. Under interrogation, he made an oral confession that he had killed Bierley, which was thereupon reduced to writing and signed by him and witnessed by the two interrogating officers. This statement was admitted into evidence, read aloud by an officer, and passed to the jury. It constituted the state's principal evidence against the defendant. It is as follows 'Statement of Robert James Thornton, age 31, taken January the 12th, 1970, at the Columbia Missouri police department. My name is Robert James Thornton, age 31. I presently reside at room 206, 400 Hitt Street. I am employed by the University and work as a janitor at the Engineering Building. I am giving this statement to Detective Vemer whom I know to be a member of the Columbia Police Department. Before giving this statement I first read and was advised of my rights by Detective Christian. I have signed the waiver of rights. The statement is with reference to the murder of James Bierley on the evening of January 8, 1970. I didn't go to work on this date as I had been drinking. I have previously been in the Fulton State Hospital because of a drinking problem. I started drinking on this date, January 8, 1970, about 5:00 p.m. I drank about one-half of a fifth of vodka. I also smoked two joints of marijuana that I got from a friend of mine. I do not know his name but only know him on sight. I met him on the corner of University and Hitt Street around 5:15 p.m. I paid him 75cents a piece for the joints. I had been drinking when I bought the joints, then after buying the joints I went back to my room and smoked them. Then after I smoked them I went walking around. After I came back from walking, James Bierley came to my room and sat down and we talked and listened to the radio. I don't remember exactly what time this was, by this time I was getting pretty high. I would estimate the time to be about six o'clock. Bierley sat in my room and talked. He talked about his bicycle and radio, first one thing then another. Then he said, 'Let's go up to my room and watch television.' And I agreed to do this and we went. His room number is 301. After getting up there we sat and watched television. We left the door open when we went in. The television was sitting over by the north wall on a stand, I believe it was on a stand. I know it was by the north wall. I sat on the bed which was against the south wall of his apartment. Bierley sat down beside me on the bed. He was sitting on the west side of me, this would have been between me and the west wall of the room. He did not drink anything that I know of. I took my bottle of vodka with me to his room and I drank vodka out of the bottle and watched television. I also saw a radio in his room while I was there. It was sitting on a table in the room. We sat there for about thirty minutes, I guess, until around six or six thirty p.m. Then he started playing with me and put his arm around me. When he played with me he started kissing me on the jaw and playing with my meat through my trousers. I told him three or four times to quit what he was doing and he just kept on like he didn't hear me. He didn't say anything to me when he was doing this, he was just breathing hard and acting freakish. Then I got up to leave the room and he came and grabbed me. He grabbed me as I was starting out of the door of the room and pulled me back into the room. I was facing to the east at the time he grabbed me with my back to him. He grabbed me by putting both of his hands and arms around my waist, then he pulled me back into the room. When he pulled me back into the room I kind of went blank. I remember breaking loose from him and starting to stab him. I remember the first time I stabbed him I was standing up and so was he. I do not know for sure where I stabbed him the first time. I do remember stabbing him several times, I cannot say just how many times, maybe three or four times. I don't remember if I stabbed him after he fell on the bed or not. I don't remember if he said anything to me when I was stabbing him or not. Queers and freaks upset me a lot and I try to stay away from them as much as possible. I guess when he stabbed (sic) me I just lost my temper and went out of my mind completely insane. The next thing I remember after stabbing him was leaving his room and going downstairs in the hallway and I just stood there. Then I went to my room and sat down in a chair and sat there for I don't know how long. Before going downstairs I went to the bathroom or toilet on the same floor as Bierley's room and put the knife in a wastebasket in the room. I put the knife in the bottom of the wastebasket and covered it with some papers. The papers were already there and I just took them out and put the knife in the bottom and covered it with them. I don't remember if I washed the knife or not, I was very upset and high on narcotics and drunk from liquor so I just don't know what I did exactly. The knife I had used had a black bone handle, maybe plastic, it had about a two and one-half inch blade on it. I had previously ground the blade on it, but this was about two or three months before the murder happened. I haven't heard from the guy I stabbed until this date. I haven't seen him since the night I stabbed him. I do definitely remember stabbing this man, James Bierley. I don't remember him hitting me or threatening me in any way. I know that he was trying to queer me and I just blew up and started stabbing him. He had not made any threats to me. I do not remember what clothes I was wearing when the stabbing occurred. I do not remember what program we were watching on the television at the time I went into his room. I did not take any items from his room. I did not take any of his money or anything. I have read the above one and one-half page of this statement and find it true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I give this statement of my own free will. No threats or promises were made to me to make me give this statement. Witnesses, Robert S. Vemer, Don E. Christian. Signed by Robert J. Thornton.' (Emphasis supplied)

It should be here noted that defendant does not assert, upon this appeal, any violation of constitutional safeguards regarding the procurement of this statement. On the contrary, the thrust of his first point is that, since the state offered this statement as part of its case, it is bound by the facts therein stated and that under those facts the state failed, as a matter of law, to establish or prove the non-existence of justifiable homicide or self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt. As this point is understood, the defendant's contention, otherwise stated, is that the uncontroverted facts contained in this statement establish the defense of justifiable homicide, as a matter of law, and therefore the trial court erred in overruling his motions for acquittal. On the other hand, the state argues that even though each of the defendant's statements of fact in his confession is not controverted by other direct evidence, his claim of self-defense, under the facts stated in the confession and other circumstances, remained a question of fact for the jury.

Preliminary to a resolution of this point, a procedural question raised by the state must be resolved. The defendant was initially charged with First Degree Murder. During the trial, the state amended its information reducing...