Court Opinion

ID: 9640927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:18:12.599387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:33.661108
License: Public Domain

PARRISH, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The principal opinion points out that, as pertinent to the facts of this case, the misdemeanor offense of resisting arrest includes two elements — that a law enforcement officer intended to arrest defendant, and the defendant, knowing that the officer intended to make an arrest, fled from the officer. § 575.150.1(1).1 The opinion finds that there was no showing of an intent on the part of Trooper Portman to arrest the defendant because, at the time Trooper Portman began his pursuit of the defendant’s car, the trooper only intended to stop the car to investigate an apparent violation of failing to register a motor vehicle. From that finding, the opinion concludes that the state did not prove that the trooper intended to arrest the defendant prior to flight and finds that “[§ 575.150] does not create the crime of fleeing from a traffic stop where no arrest was intended until after flight commenced.” (Emphasis added.)
I do not believe that it was necessary for Trooper Portman to have intended to arrest the defendant before the trooper began pursuit of the defendant’s vehicle, i.e., prior to defendant’s attempts to avoid apprehension. In my opinion, the testimony of Trooper Portman in which he stated that he developed the intent to arrest the defendant after determining that the defendant was fleeing from him was sufficient to establish the first element of the offense of resisting arrest. Defendant’s flight was ongoing. I believe all that was necessary in order for the trooper to satisfy the first element of the offense was for the trooper to form an intent to arrest the defendant during the pursuit, but prior to defendant’s arrest.
*578The principal opinion relies on State v. Wanner, 751 S.W.2d 789 (Mo.App.1988), for the proposition that an officer in pursuit of a vehicle must contemplate an actual arrest in order for the offense of resisting arrest to occur. Wanner is distinguishable from this case. In Wanner there was never an intent to arrest the offender at any time prior to the offender being shot. In this case, during the course of the pursuit, before the defendant was apprehended, Trooper Portman developed the intent to arrest him.
The principal opinion does not reach the second element of the offense charged— that the offender, the defendant, knowing that the officer intended to make an arrest, fled from the officer. Mindful that, in determining the sufficiency of the evidence, an appellate court accepts as true all evidence tending to prove the defendant’s guilt, together with inferences favorable to the state that can be drawn therefrom, I believe that the element that defendant knew the officer was going to arrest him can be inferred from defendant’s conduct in attempting to avoid apprehension. Defendant’s efforts to avoid apprehension, i.e., his fleeing during the entire time he was pursued by Trooper Portman, including the pursuit on county road DD70, were conscious efforts to avoid whatever apprehension was intended by Trooper Portman. After Trooper Portman developed the intent to arrest defendant, defendant continued fleeing from the trooper. Defendant’s actions, as shown from the evidence at trial, were sufficient, in my opinion, to permit the inference that he knowingly intended to avoid arrest. The defendant had seen the lights that had been activated on the trooper’s automobile; nevertheless, he continued to flee from the trooper at speeds of 60 to 65 miles per hour in disregard of the lights and in disregard of the siren that was activated after the trooper turned onto county road DD70. This conduct supports an inference that the defendant feared something more severe than a traffic ticket — that he fled from the patrol car for the purpose of preventing Trooper Portman from effecting his arrest. I would affirm the decision of the trial court.

. References to statutes are to RSMo 1986.