Court Opinion

ID: 9648449
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:21:21.638692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:00.938895
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Judge
(concurring).
Before voting in this case, I have had the benefit of Judge Holman’s dissenting opinion, wherein he distinguishes the reasoning of State v. Murphy (Mo.Sup. banc), 415 S.W.2d 758, saying it would not apply here, because while it is common knowledge that people are present in a large city store each day, it is unlikely that the defendant would just happen to be in the parking lot at the Hoock car at the time of the robbery. Therefore, Judge Holman concludes this is not a case where the jury could have believed that defendant was on the parking lot and nevertheless believed he did not commit the crime, and hence a converse was not required.
In the case at bar there were two defenses: (1) that defendant was not the person who committed the robbery and the witnesses were mistaken in their identification (this defense does not necessarily depend on whether defendant was or was not on the parking lot) and (2) that he was at an address on Carver Lane helping to prepare breakfast and was not at the scene of the crime.
The jury could have disbelieved that defendant was at the Carver Lane address helping prepare breakfast and still have found that defendant did not commit the offense. The jury might have believed he was not on the lot at all, even though not believing he was at the Carver Lane address, and that it was a case of mistaken identity. Or to put it another way, I do not see that the jury would necessarily have to believe that defendant was on the parking lot at the Hoock car, but only by coincidence and as an innocent bystander, in order to acquit under defense (1).
I do not read State v. Murphy, supra, as turning on whether the crime occurred in a crowded or isolated place. As I understand it, it holds that in a case where mis*341taken identity is claimed as well as alibi, defendant is entitled to an affirmative and direct submission of the mistaken identity defense. If so, then it was prejudicial error to refuse to give defendant’s offered instruction No. B and I concur with the principal opinion on this point and agree that the cause should be reversed and remanded for that reason.