State v. Wallace, 57470

• Decision Date: 10 December 1973
• Docket Number: No. 2,No. 57470,57470,2
• Citation: 504 S.W.2d 67
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph L. WALLACE, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 67

504 S.W.2d 67

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Joseph L. WALLACE, Appellant.

No. 57470.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

Dec. 10, 1973.

Motion for Rehearing or to Transfer to Court en Banc Denied

Jan. 14, 1974.

John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Vincent F. Igoe, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

Alan E. DeWoskin, St. Louis, for appellant.

HENLEY, Presiding Judge.

Joseph L. Wallace, defendant, appeals from a judgment sentencing him to imprisonment for life on his conviction by a jury of first degree murder. The notice of appeal was filed prior to January 1, 1972, the effective date of the 1970 amendment of Mo.Const. Art. V, § 3, V.A.M.S. We affirm.

Defendant contends that there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the conviction. Purtis Pool testified that he was in Jim's Service Station located at 17th and Cass in the City of St. Louis on the evening of November 4, 1970, at about 7:30 o'clock, talking with its owner, James Shivers; that Mr. Shivers was seated with his feet up on his desk and he (witness) was leaning on the desk facing Shivers when defendant and another man walked in the door and asked to use the telephone; that immediately after using the telephone, ihe heard defendant say, 'Don't nobody move, this is a stick-up, don't nobody move'; that as he heard this voice, he looked to his left and saw defendant with a pistol in his hand pointed at Jim Shivers; that in response to the announcement that this is a stick-up, Mr. Shivers said, 'You have got to be kidding,' and started to stand up; that as Shivers moved, defendant fired three shots at him and Shivers slumped over the desk; that he (witness) grabbed the gun, struggled with defendant, and was shot during the struggle. There was medical testimony that Mr. Shivers was dead on arrival at the City Hospital a few minutes later. A post-mortem examination performed the next day showed that he received three gunshot wounds, one of which had entered his left chest, penetrated his heart, and produced death. The other two shots entered his arms. This evidence is sufficient to support the conviction.

The first point briefed by defendant is that the court erred in overruling his motion for an order directing the state to advance or pay the cost for him to take the deposition of 23 witnesses endorsed on the information. He asserts that proper preparation of his defense by counsel required that he take the deposition of these witnesses but that he could not do so because of his indigency; that since an accused with financial means may take the deposition of witnesses (§ 545.400, Rule 25.10 ¹) in preparation for trial, to permit his indigency to deny him this right is to deny him equal protection of the law in violation of the state and federal constitutions. This identical question was raised and presented, discussed at length, and ruled against the defendant in State v. Aubuchon, 381 S.W.2d 807, 812--13(1--4) (Mo.1964). It was raised again and the holding of Aubuchon, supra, was followed in State v. Bibbs, 461 S.W.2d 755, 759(4) (Mo.1970). We reaffirm our decision in those cases and hold that the court did not err in overruling the motion to take depositions.

The next four points briefed are closely allied and may be considered together. The first three are that the court erred in excusing for cause members of the panel from which the trial jury was to be selected those persons who had expressed mere general objections to or conscientious scruples against capital punishment, because (1) the exclusion of these persons denied him the right to trial by an impartial jury as held in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968); and (2) it '* * * systematically excludes those persons who are * * * of the Negro race.'

It was explicitly held in Witherspoon that that decision did not affect the validity of any sentence other than one of death. This court held in State v. Adams, 497 S.W.2d 147, 153(4) (1973) that the Witherspoon holding does not govern where the jury has not imposed the death penalty. See also: Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968). The above cases are controlling in this case where the death penalty was not assessed by the jury. The assertion that to excuse persons who have scruples against the death penalty is systematically to exclude those prospective jurors who are Negro, does not prove itself and it is not supported by the record in this case.

The last of these four allied points is that the court erred '* * * in not permitting defendant * * * to interrogate all of the (prospective jurors) on * * * their ability to impose punishment under the laws of * * * Missouri.' It is far from clear what defendant's contention is in this point, but as we understand it from the three lines of printed argument devoted to this point, his complaint is that the court interrupted him too many times during voir dire examination relative to punishment--so many times, he says, as to cause him not to reach some veniremen with this examination. We have carefully examined the record of the voir dire examination. It does not support defendant's contention.

The next two points briefed are combined in the printed argument portion of defendant's brief. We will consider them together. They are that the court erred in (1) admitting in evidence items of clothing of deceased, Shivers, because: (a) the clothing was not identified as having been worn by deceased at the time of the shooting, and (b) the clothing was offered in evidence solely to inflame the minds of the jurors and was highly prejudicial to defendant; and (2) admitting the testimony of a criminalist from the police department laboratory describing the location of bullet holes in the clothing, because it also was inflammatory and prejudicial to defendant.

The record shows that the clothing admitted in evidence was identified by witness Pool as the jacket and shirt worn by deceased at the time he was shot. Defendant refers to the clothing as being bloodstained and having three holes which a police department witness described as being bullet holes. However, defendant does not attempt to describe the blood stains or demonstrate how they or the bullet holes possibly could have inflamed the minds of the jurors.

Whether to admit or deny admission in evidence of such articles of clothing is a matter within the sound discretion of the trial judge. State v. Evans, 406 S.W.2d 612, 617(6) (Mo.1966). We find no abuse of discretion.

Defendant also contends that the admission in evidence and the exhibition of these articles to the jury was error because there was other evidence of the location and nature of the wounds and no dispute as to any fact these exhibits would show. The fact that there was evidence of all of the material facts these exhibits would show, and no dispute as to those facts, does not render the exhibits inadmissible. Such clothing articles themselves will give a much clearer impression than any oral description could possibly convey. These articles corroborated the testimony of the state's witnesses that the defendant fired three shots at deceased at point blank range, all of which struck deceased in the upper portion of his body (in the chest and arms) while he was in the act of getting up from a sitting position. As pointed out in State v. Evans, supra, l.c. 617, the state should not in this connection be unduly limited in the quantum of its proof since it has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Brandt, 467 S.W.2d 948, 952 (Mo.1971). The court did not err in admitting these exhibits in evidence.

There was no objection to any part of the brief testimony of the witness from the police department laboratory; therefore, the claim of error in the admission of her testimony is not preserved for review and will not be considered.

Defendant's next point is that the court erred in admitting in evidence a .38 caliber revolver, fully loaded with five live bullets, found by the police on the floor behind where deceased had been sitting at his desk. The gun was identified as belonging to deceased. One of the photographs admitted in evidence showed a revolver lying on the floor where this exhibit was found. The state offered the revolver, the live cartridges found in it, and identified its owner to account for its presence in the picture; and, in anticipation of a claim by defendant that he had fired in self-defense, to show that it had not been fired. Defendant's objection to this evidence was that the weapon and the cartridges were not connected with the crime, had no probative value, and that its introduction '* * * tends to be inflammatory and prejudicial to the defendant.'

Again, the admission of such demonstrative evidence is largely within the sound discretion of the trial judge. State v. Evans, supra. In this case, the murder weapon was not available for introduction in evidence. A picture which incidentally showed a revolver on the floor was seen by the jury. Without an identification of the pictured revolver, the jury might well believe it was the murder weapon and wonder why the state had not produced it. At least, the trial judge thought that in these circumstances some explanation of the pictured weapon was in order. Only by showing the jury the actual weapon...