Court Opinion

ID: 9660783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:20:44.02497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:22.123816
License: Public Domain

PRITCHARD, Presiding Judge.
The majority opinion reverses the judgment of the trial court and discharges appellant wherein it says that there is a dearth of circumstantial evidence for the jury to have found, as it did, appellant guilty of manslaughter of the eleven month old victim, Toshua Lynn Meeker. In this I believe the majority errs in that it too narrowly circumscribes the rules governing circumstantial evidence, which a jury is entitled to consider.
There was evidence from the mother of the child that prior to July 24, 1981, when the child was found unconscious lying on her back in an upstairs room, that the general condition of her health was good, she having had normal childhood diseases such as chicken pox. On July 24th, the child was fussy because she was cutting teeth. On the day before, July 23, 1981, to be sure, the child had fallen face forward from an ordinary kitchen chair where she was sitting, striking her head upon a linoleum floor. The mother testified that the child’s reaction to the fall was that “she just kind of cried for a little bit, and I picked her up and was playing with her, trying, you know, to get her to stop crying —.” The mother thought it scared her more than it hurt her. Coupled with the mother’s testimony that she thought the child was not hurt is that of Dr. Bonita Peterson, who performed an autopsy on the child after she died on July 30, 1981. Dr. Peterson first found a fluctuant or spongy area on the right side of the child’s *740head. On reflection of the scalp after incision, she saw a hemorrhage on the under surface of the scalp on the right side of the head, and also a fracture measuring 4V2 inches in length, extending from the front part of the head towards the back, going slightly downward, at a slight angle. Upon removing the top of the skull, Dr. Peterson observed a layer of hemorrhage (blood) over the right side of the brain, the source of which, in her opinion, was broken blood vessels over the top of the head connecting the brain with the skull, related to trauma. Dr. Peterson also found the abnormality of the entire brain area as being very swollen, probably a reaction to trauma, and secondly, as a result of the child being on a ventilator. As to the severity of the injury, Dr. Peterson testified: “Q. You’re talking about the skull fracture, and the damage, the edema, to the brain, based on your autopsy, and your experience, are you able to place this in a range of mild, moderate, severe, trauma? A. Well, I think I placed it in the category of severe in my final comments. Q. Is that still your opinion? A. Yes. Q. And what do you base that on? A. The extent of the skull fracture. It is not easy, because of an infant’s skull, to fracture it, so there would have to be considerable force.” Although Dr. Peterson could not, on the basis of her autopsy, tell whether it was a fall or a blow which caused the injury, she testified that the cause of death was a severe head injury, with skull fracture, and hemorrhaging, in-tra-cranial hemorrhage.
Dr. Peterson was asked to assume that Toshua Lynn Meeker was eleven months of age, that she took very few steps, basically crawling, that the day before she was taken to the hospital in respiratory distress, she had fallen from a kitchen chair, face forward, and assuming that following that, the child with the exception of some sleepiness, otherwise was her normal self. She was asked if she had an opinion that the type of head injury which she saw on July 30, 1981, could have been caused by such a fall. “A. Well, I would ask for a little bit more information. What was the floor? Q. Linoleum floor. A. And this was the average kitchen chair? Q. Average kitchen chair. A. And your question was? Q. The type of skull fracture that you saw, and its location, could it have been obtained from that type of fall? A. No. Q. Is there any possibility? A. The child on its own? Q. Yes. A. No. Q. Is there a point in time where your opinion would change, depending on the height of the chair? A. Well, it seems very unlikely that the chair could be high enough to cause that type of injury from a fall, unless there was some force behind it. In other words, the child just from a chair, no. Now, if it was from a second floor window, or something like that, yes.”
The events during the day of July 24, 1981, are important. The child’s mother testified that she, the child and appellant had been living at 1307 Gilmore in Trenton, Missouri, for about a month. She was with the child all day on July 24, 1981, and appellant was in and out, and was not with the child all day long. The three of them, Toshua, appellant and Toshua’s mother, went to the home of appellant’s parents, Leon and Daisy May, about noon, and went back there about 4:30 p.m., and stayed outside at a picnic table until about 5:30 p.m., visiting and talking. During this time, To-shua was sitting on Daisy May’s lap when she was not crawling around on the ground. At the time Toshua was learning to walk, taking a few steps with assistance. Leon May took the three of them home about 5:30, and about 6:30, the three walked five or six blocks uptown, where they met appellant’s sister who took them in her vehicle to a liquor store and then drove them home. The three were with the sister for about thirty minutes, driving around for about ten minutes during which time Toshua and the sister’s daughter were playing. Appellant, Toshua and her mother arrived at 1307 Gilmore around 8:00 that evening. Toshua was in the playpen in the living room, appellant was painting the kitchen door, and the mother started washing her hair in the kitchen. The mother heard Toshua in the playpen “just jabbering”.
*741About 10 or 15 minutes after they arrived home, and while the mother was still washing her hair, she heard appellant go upstairs with the child, which apparently had gone to sleep. Appellant was upstairs just long enough to lay the child down, then come back down, and started painting on the kitchen door. In about 15 minutes, when the mother was in the living room, appellant went back upstairs and brought the child, who was then awake, back down and laid her in the playpen where she went right back to sleep. The mother was then combing her hair, and appellant was then sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette, which he had lit up right after he brought the child downstairs. Appellant eventually took the child, still asleep, back upstairs, being gone long enough to lay her down, and come back down. The mother and appellant then sat in the living room listening to the radio or watching T.Y. According to the mother, the next thing that occurred was: “A. It was hot, and Steve said he was going upstairs to check on her, and get a fan, and he went upstairs to check, and he said something — he come back downstairs, and said ‘something’ was ‘wrong with Toshua’, so I run upstairs, and she was unconscious, so we both ran to the neighbor’s house, but she wasn’t at home, so Steve told me — Huh? Q. There was no one else in the house, at that time? A. But just her. Q. So, you ran next door to the neighbor’s, and no one was home? A. Uh huh, apd he told me to go back upstairs, and stand by her, and he’d go get his mom.” Appellant was gone about 5 minutes to get his parents, during which time Toshua’s mother stayed with her. Toshua was unconscious, white, lying on her back, looking forward with her eyes open, but was not responsive.
Appellant’s mother, Daisy May, had been around Toshua for seven to nine months prior to July 24, 1981, during which time she described her health as “fine”. The child had chicken pox, and a cold a time or two, nothing serious in that time. Daisy saw the child around 3:30 or a quarter to 4 in the afternoon at Daisy’s home, for about one or one and a half hours, along with the child’s mother and appellant, who ate some food and fed Toshua some green beans. Daisy was asked, “Q. Did you notice anything unusual about her on July 24th? A. Yes, I did. Q. What? A. She was sleeping acting, and she just didn’t do that, and I made the remark immediately, I said ‘What’s the matter with Toshua?’, and Norma said ‘She does this a lot of times, sleeps a lot.’ Q. You were not acquainted with that though? A. No, I wasn’t.”
The jury could have found these facts which are supportive of its verdict of guilt: The child had been in previous fine health excepting non-serious childhood diseases. During the day of July 24, the child was in good condition, crawling on the ground, eating and sitting on Mrs. May’s lap, and at about 8:00 that evening, she was sitting in her playpen “just jabbering”. She was just learning to take a few steps at her tender age of eleven months. During all of the time when appellant was carrying the child up and down the stairs he had the exclusive control or custody of her — the mother, the only other person present, was washing and combing her hair and watching T.V. or listening to the radio. Although the mother did not ever see appellant or anyone ever strike the child, the jury could find that the fracture to the right side of the head was inflicted during the time that appellant had charge of her, between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., on July 24, 1981, the latter time being about when she was found unconscious, lying on her back, in the upstairs bedroom.
Although the majority opinion makes much of the fact that the doctors who attended the child after medical attention was sought could not attribute a cause of the injury to a fall or a blow [i.e., Dr. Ryan could give no opinion as to the cause of mushiness on the back of the skull; Dr. Elrod, diagnosing a possible skull fracture (later confirmed), testified it was “unexplained trauma, or even unexplained ongoing trauma”; Dr. Fall could not say whether the trauma was a fall or a blow; and Dr. Peterson saying that there was no clue as to whether it was a fall or a blow]. Dr. *742Peterson testified further that it was not unusual not to have such a clue. She testified further that the cause of death was a severe head injury (trauma), with skull fracture and hemorrhaging, intra-cranial hemorrhage. She placed the trauma as severe based upon the extent of the skull fracture, which in an infant is not easy, but it would have to be with considerable force. Dr. Peterson (and the testimony of the mother) ruled out, for the jury’s consideration, that the severe head injury could have been caused by the fall (accident) from an ordinary kitchen chair the day before the child was found unconscious. Certainly, the jury could have found and believed that this severe and massive head injury could not have been self-inflicted by this toddler. What is important here, also for the jury’s consideration is the fact that the severe head injury would have required considerable force on this infant, and the jury could have reasonably found that during the minutes that appellant had exclusive custody of the child, coupled with the other circumstance that the child was in prior good condition, a blow of “considerable force” was somehow administered to it by a human agency so as to cause its subsequent death. The state was not required to allege and prove the precise manner in which the child was killed, State v. Clark, 546 S.W.2d 455, 463[10] (Mo.App.1976), or to prove the nature of the weapon, or indeed, that any weapon was used, State v. Morris, 564 S.W.2d 303, 311 (Mo.App.1978). Nor was the jury required to have before it medical evidence as to the cause of the infliction of the head injury. The evidence, considering all of the circumstances, and the rule that on review it must be regarded, with all legitimate inferences, in the light most favorable to the verdict, points immutably to appellant’s guilt.
At page 308, footnote 5, of State v. Morris, supra, certain cases from other jurisdictions are cited which the court declined to follow. In State v. Applegate, 668 S.W.2d 624, 631 (Mo.App.1984), the matter is clarified: “The infant victim was in the defendant’s custody when he was fatally injured. In Morris, 564 S.W.2d at 308, n. 5, this court rejected the notion that proof that a child was fatally injured while in the custody of an adult is sufficient to create an inference that the adult inflicted those injuries, and we again reject that notion. The fact that the victim was in the defendant’s custody is only one circumstance to be considered.” [Italics here added.] Of course, in the Morris and Applegate cases, the matter of custody by defendants was not a single circumstance, but others in the cases pointed to defendants’ guilt, but if the Morris and Applegate cases stand for the proposition that where the child is in previous good condition; the evidence rules out a fall (as from an ordinary kitchen chair) as being the cause of the injury; that there is no evidence of accident or self-infliction of the injury as by playing; that the jury may not infer that a defendant inflicted the massive injury during the minutes that he had the sole and exclusive custody, then this writer would disagree with the statements. The probative effect of that circumstantial evidence should be reviewed by the Supreme Court. Although involving the “battered child syndrome” (an increasingly judicially recognized concept), meaning repeated serious injuries by nonaccidental means, these cases stand for the conclusion, based upon logic and reason, that the injuries were occasioned by someone ostensibly caring for the child: People v. Jackson, 18 Cal.App.3d 504, 95 Cal.Rptr. 919 (1971); State v. Loss, 295 Minn. 271, 204 N.W.2d 404, 409 (1973); Rinehart v. State, 641 P.2d 192, 194 (Wyo.1982) [death of an 11 month old child, in appellant’s custody, caused by shaking her]; Grabill v. State, 621 P.2d 802, 806 (Wyo.1980) [infant’s head injury occurred while appellant had sole and exclusive custody]; Jones v. State, 580 P.2d 1150, 1152 (Wyo.1978) [head injuries not present prior to the time the 19 month old child came under appellant’s exclusive control, and the hemorrhage could not have been caused by a fall from a high chair or other accident in the attending doctor’s opinion]; Goldade v. State, 674 P.2d 721, 727 (Wyo.1983) [“In a series of cases this court has recognized *743that opportunity, together with injuries consistent with child abuse, is sufficient evidence to support a conviction for homicide.”].
Appellant’s further points that the trial court erred in failing to exclude the testimony of Dr. Ryan, and in failing to require the state to file an adequate bill of particulars (of information it did not have) have been considered and are found to be without merit.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent from the majority opinion. The judgment should be affirmed.