Court Opinion

ID: 9641794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:40:35.987356+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:39.793296
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
concurring.
After much reflection, I have decided to concur in the principal opinion. I was initially disturbed at the state’s changing theories between the guilt phase and the punishment phase of the trial, but on reflection am persuaded that the defendant was for all intents and purposes a principal. Cf. State v. Laws, 661 S.W.2d 526 (Mo. banc 1983). Prior to MAI-CR, the information could have been founded and the jury could have been instructed on the basis that the defendant was a principal. The jury could have accepted the defendant’s admission that he was an active participant in the robbery, kidnapping and murder, without necessarily believing his claim that Luckett had wielded the knife. Under these circumstances I find no essential unfairness in providing the jury, at the punishment phase, with the additional information that he had admitted that he dealt the fatal blow. The principal opinion demonstrates convincingly that the defense had full opportunity to challenge and to impeach the testimony. On the whole, I perceive no error requiring reversal.
I doubt that I would be willing to uphold a conviction in a case in which I was persuaded that the prosecution had misled the defendant by change of theories. This is not such a case.
I am also concerned that another jury, in its wisdom, assessed life imprisonment after finding Willie Luckett guilty of first degree murder. State v. Luckett, 770 S.W.2d 399 (Mo.App.1989). The cases are distinguishable because Luckett sought to demonstrate by evidence that the killing was Kilgore’s idea and that he, Luckett, did not wield the knife. A jury apprised of those facts might logically decree the lesser sentence. Also, no evidence of prior offenses was introduced in Luckett’s case. I believe that this Court, in its proportionality review pursuant to § 565.035.3(1), should give attention to the fate of other participants in the same offense. See State v. McIlvoy, 629 S.W.2d 333 (Mo. banc 1982). But here the jury had a basis for drawing a distinction.
I concur in the principal opinion.