Opinion ID: 1795596
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Insufficient Evidence Supports Sole Aggravator

Text: The state submitted three statutory aggravating circumstances against defendant. The jury did not find against defendant on two of the aggravatorsthat he had murdered Ms. Cantrell for money or that he had murdered her because she was a witness in a pending prosecution for criminal non-support. The jury did find the third aggravator beyond a reasonable doubt, howeverWhether the defendant hired Ortell Wilson and/or a person known only as Michael to murder Kimberly Cantrell. Defendant contends that there was insufficient evidence to prove the sole statutory aggravator found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt; thus, the court should not have submitted it, and the judgment imposing the death penalty should be set aside. In support, he first correctly notes that the state cannot rely on Mr. Wilson's statements incriminating defendant since they were not admitted or were admitted only to show the course of the police investigation, not for their truth. Of course, there was still defendant's confession that he hired Mr. Wilson or Michael to murder his ex-wife. But, as defendant notes, out-of-court confessions, statements, or admissions by the accused are generally not admissible unless they are corroborated by independent evidence, either circumstantial or direct, showing the corpus delicti of the crime. State v. Fears, 803 S.W.2d 605, 608 (Mo. banc 1991); State v. Summers, 362 S.W.2d 537, 542 (Mo.1962). Here, defendant argues, if his confession is not considered, and since Mr. Wilson's confession cannot be considered, there is no corroborating evidence, and so no corpus delicti, and the aggravating circumstance should not have been submitted. The burden to establish the corpus delicti is upon the state. State v. Black, 611 S.W.2d 236, 240 (Mo.App. E.D. 1980). The corpus delicti in a homicide case consists of two elements: (1) proof of the death of the victim and (2) evidence that the criminal agency of another was the cause of the victim's death. Fears, 803 S.W.2d at 608. These factors may be shown by circumstantial evidence, but are not established until it has been proved that the death was not self-inflicted nor due to natural causes or accident. State v. Meidle, 202 S.W.2d 79, 81 (Mo.1947). The corpus delicti cannot be presumed and must be proved by legal evidence sufficient to show that the crime charged has been committed by someone. Summers, 362 S.W.2d at 542. As applied here, this Court need not decide whether proof of the corpus delicti only requires corroboration of the fact of the murder, as the state argues, or whether it also requires corroboration of the existence of an aggravating circumstance, as defendant argues by analogy to and extension of the principles set out in Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002). In either case, corroborating evidence may be circumstantial and need not be absolutely conclusive of guilt or demonstrate impossibility of innocence, and the mere existence of other possible hypotheses is not enough to remove the case from the jury. Fears, 803 S.W.2d at 608, quoting, State v. Payne, 612 S.W.2d 353, 354 (Mo.App. E.D.1980). It is enough if the state establishes by circumstantial evidence the `appearance of acting in concert.' State v. Williams, 897 S.W.2d 631, 635 (Mo.App. E.D.1995). Only slight corroborating facts are needed. State v. McQuinn, 361 Mo. 631, 235 S.W.2d 396, 397 (Mo.1951); State v. Evans, 992 S.W.2d 275, 285 (Mo.App. S.D.1999). Defendant's argument that the state has not proved the corpus delicti is not well taken for numerous reasons. First, his argument in his point relied on is that, because of the lack of corroboration, the instruction submitting aggravators was not supported by the evidence. In other words, he alleges instructional error. Yet, he does not even allege that he objected to the relevant instruction on this basis. He failed, therefore, to preserve this issue for review. Rule 28.03 provides, inter alia, that no party may assign as error the giving of an instruction unless the party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter objected to and the grounds of the objection. Consequently, because defendant failed to object to the instruction prior to submission, the claim is not preserved for our review. See, e.g., State v. Myers, 989 S.W.2d 594, 596 (Mo.App. E.D. 1999); State v. Brisco, 934 S.W.2d 335, 336 (Mo.App. W.D.1996). Second, the cases prohibit admission of a confession in the absence of proof of corroborative proof of the corpus delicti. The general rule, however, is that if otherwise inadmissible evidence comes in without objection, it may be considered in determining whether a submissible case has been made, its weight being for the jury. Callahan v. Cardinal Glennon Hosp., 863 S.W.2d 852, 863 (Mo. banc 1993); see also State v. Butler, 24 S.W.3d 21 (Mo.App. W.D.2000). Here defendant did not object to admission of his statements on the basis that the state had not yet proved the corpus delicti of the crime. He objected to their admission on the basis that they were involuntary and obtained in violation of Miranda, objections found meritless. Having failed to object to the admission of this evidence on the basis of lack of corroboration, defendant waived that objection to its admission. Once admitted without objection on this basis, however, there was no bar to use of his confession in support of submission of the statutory aggravator that defendant hired Mr. Wilson or another to murder his ex-wife. Id. Therefore, the trial court did not err in submitting this aggravator to the jury. Third, even were the issue preserved, this Court would find no error. When a defendant challenges the sufficiency of evidence to support an aggravating circumstance, the test is whether a reasonable juror could reasonably find from the evidence that the proposition advanced is true beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Brown, 902 S.W.2d 278, 294 (Mo. banc 1995). The reviewing court does not weigh the evidence but determines whether it was sufficient to permit reasonable persons to have found the defendant guilty. State v. Porter, 640 S.W.2d 125, 126 (Mo. banc 1982). Upon a review for sufficiency of evidence, the reviewing court takes the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict. Fears, 803 S.W.2d at 607. Here, the state clearly established the corpus delicti of the crime charged with evidence other than the mere out-of-court confession of defendant. As to the occurrence of the crime itself, and its commission by Mr. Wilson, even without consideration of defendant's confession, the state presented evidence of Ms. Cantrell's death by being shot twice in the head on August 22, 2002. It also presented evidence that Mr. Wilson took a black bag to work with him that day, and Donnell Watson, Mr. Wilson's roommate, testified that he dropped Mr. Wilson off, carrying a black bag, at approximately 4:30 p.m. on August 22, at a location 200 to 300 yards from the victim's home. The victim's neighbor testified that he saw a black man with a black bag trying to get into Ms. Cantrell's apartment shortly before 5:00 p.m., but no one answered Ms. Cantrell did not leave work until shortly after 5:00 p.m. that night. She arrived home a few minutes later. At 5:15 p.m. or so, another neighbor heard two shots and a woman scream. Ms. Cantrell did not attend a class she was to attend that evening or go to work the next day. Family members found her shot to death in her apartment on the evening of August 23. Ortell Wilson knew defendant and worked for him at his apartments on Palm Street. Mr. Wilson looked like the person who the neighbor saw pounding on the victim's door shortly before the shooting, and the neighbor later identified him as the person who had tried to enter the victim's home. In Mr. Wilson's apartment, the police found a black bag like that carried by the assailant, containing rubber fingertips. This was sufficient evidence of the murder by Mr. Wilson. In addition, the state presented evidence that defendant was having a dispute with his ex-wife over child support, that he had been charged with criminal non-support, and that he had a hearing in three days on that case. Hughie Wilson, Ortell Wilson's brother, testified that during the spring or summer of 2000, Mr. Edwards asked him where he could get a throwaway gun. Hughie also testified that when he went to visit Ortell at his apartment on about August 7, 2000, Mr. Edwards was in the apartment with Ortell, and Hughie saw a gun on a table that was similar to the gun used to kill the victim. Once Hughie arrived, Mr. Edwards told Ortell to put the gun away. In addition, Donnell Watson, Ortell Wilson's roommate, testified that defendant again visited Mr. Wilson at the apartment at about 7:30 p.m. on the evening of August 21, 2000, the day before the murder. As noted, the next day Mr. Watson dropped Mr. Wilson off a few hundred yards from the victim's home at about 4:30 p.m. Mr. Wilson returned to the apartment at about 7:30 p.m., looking sweaty. At around 8:00 p.m., defendant came to the apartment to see Mr. Wilson. This evidence, that Mr. Wilson had a gun and defendant told him to hide it, that he and defendant met the night before the crime and the night of the crime, that defendant had a motive, that defendant had sought to obtain a gun that could not be identified a few weeks to months before the murder, as well as the evidence showing Mr. Wilson worked for defendant, that he committed the murder, and the actual finding of the gun that was used in the murder, is more than sufficient to constitute the slight corroborating facts needed to prove the corpus delicti. Defendant's confession was properly admitted, and the court did not err in submitting this aggravator to the jury.