Court Opinion

ID: 9635090
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:35:59.6338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:17.784407
License: Public Domain

KENNETH M. ROMINES, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. Glen McGowan was charged by an amended information in Warren County with Tampering in the First Degree, two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, and as a Prior and Persistent Offender, having been previously convicted in Dunklin County in 1993 of Forgery, and in 1995 in Dunklin County of Possession of a Controlled Substance in a County Jail. Neither appellant nor his counsel contest the sufficiency of the evidence to convict.
In the company of Charles Brown (aka Red, Charlie Brown, James Gillespie, and Moody), Sharon Malone, and Barbara Bost, McGowan was involved in an adventure across six Missouri Counties ending in Montgomery County, the objective being to “... party in Columbia ...,” involving two stolen trucks, heroin, cocaine and codeine.
The record before the Judge and Jury showed beyond a reasonable doubt that: on 20 March 2003 Brown stole a red and white Chevrolet S-10 owned by Ocbai Tek-la, from a Church parking lot; on 21 March Brown, with Malone, picked up Bost in the stolen S-10, did drugs, then drove to McGowan’s apartment between 3:00 A.M. and 4:00 A.M.; more drugs; all who testified at trial were consistent that McGowan took no drugs; off to Columbia, Brown driving, Malone in front, Bost and McGowan in back; the S-10 was conveniently altered so that it could be operated with a screw-driver in the steering column; after the compulsory “bag of bombers” from White Castle, Brown exits 1-70 at Wentzville, pulls into a lumber yard, and apparently tiring of the close quarters in the S-10, steals, in full view of McGowan, a black Ford F150, the property of Charles Marks; Brown and Malone return to 1-70 in the Ford F150, with Bost and McGowan following in the S-10; starting to nod asleep Bost turns the driving duties over to McGowan; Trooper Mark Broniec is informed of the stolen Ford F150 and the plate numbers, parks his car east of the Warrenton exit, and almost immediately sees the Ford F150, the trooper pursues, catches the truck near the Truxton exit *613where Brown was speeding up and weaving through traffic to avoid the trooper; with the trooper’s lights on, Brown goes from the passing lane to the exit ramp beyond the normal entrance; with the trooper close behind on the exit ramp Brown and Malone bolt the truck in opposite directions and let the truck roll into the trooper’s car; the trooper catches Malone, puts her under arrest and calls for back-up; Brown crosses the median and gets in the bed of the Chevy S-10 driven by McGowan and leaves the scene; Nicole Barnes sees the actions of Brown and McGowan, gives the truck’s description to Trooper Broniee, who reports the vehicle and the direction being traveled; Trooper Anthony Maddox spots the vehicle as he waits in a cross-over on 1-70; Trooper Maddox makes eye-contact with McGowan, McGowan crosses lanes and exits on Highway 19, the truck stops and Trooper Maddox, with weapon drawn, demands the vehicle to be turned off and the keys thrown out, McGowan responds that there are no keys, the truck was turned off with the handy screwdriver; McGowan, Bost and Brown are arrested; the troopers find heroin and cocaine in the Ford F150 and on Malone, and find cocaine and codeine in the Chevy S-10.
Trial was held in Montgomery City on 16 June 2004, ten witnesses testified, the transcript of trial contains two hundred and seventy-seven pages, ten exhibits were shown the jury, yet the majority focus is on two lines of the transcript. The majority citation to State v. Neff, 978 S.W.2d 341 (Mo. banc 1998), and the application of Neff to this case I find disingenuous.
The privilege against compulsory self-incrimination set out in the 5th Amendment, and Art. I § 19, Con. of Mo. protect against the same potential abuse: “... That no person shall be compelled to testify against himself in a criminal cause.... ” The history behind the inclusion of these words in our organic documents is clear: the state cannot “torture” a defendant either physically, or by compelling his own testimony.1
In the instant case defendant McGowan was not “compelled to testify.” Though testify he did by saying “... He’s lying ...,” to which the response was not, “Judge this is the second time today” or “... do you want to ask the questions ...,” but “... Mr. McGowan, did you want to take the stand?” These nine words do not require a new trial. I find, in the context of the trial situation facing the trial judge, the manner in which the Court responded was logical, appropriate, an exercise in prudence, and carefully done. State v. Clark, 112 S.W.3d 95, 100 (Mo.App.W.D.2003). There is neither a direct nor oblique reference to Defendant’s guilt, nor to the fact that Defendant did not testify.
The incident in toto is as follows:
Q. Okay. So the thing that Mr. Ga-bel is trying to do here is trying to basically confuse the jury and twist it around. It’s not what you said.
THE DEFENDANT: He’s lying.
MR. WRIGHT: Mr. McGowan, did you want to take the stand?
MR. GABEL: Your Honor, can we approach?
(Counsel approached the bench and the following proceedings were had.)
MR. GABEL: Your Honor, I’m asking for a mistrial with the Prosecutor’s *614direct reference to my client’s refusal to testimony. With prejudice.
MR. WRIGHT: It would not be with prejudice. We’ll do it again.
THE COURT: The request for mistrial is denied. I’m going to let it pass at this point without mentioning it to the jury and telling them to disregard it.
MR. GABEL: I’d rather it not be highlighted to the jury.
THE COURT: I don’t intend to highlight it but the request for mistrial is denied. Mr. Wright, let’s not do that.
MR. WRIGHT: I understand. This is the second time today Mr. McGowan has spoken up in the middle of trial. If he needs to speak in this trial then he needs to take the stand. It’s not appropriate for him to make comments, questions, answers or anything else from the seat over here. That is inappiopriate. There’s nothing I can do about it if he’s going to make comments or statement.
THE COURT: Well, there’s nothing I can do about it, either.
MR. WRIGHT: I understand, but that’s the second time today he’s made comments, questions from his seat and that’s inappropriate.
THE COURT: Well, I agree with that. Mr. Gabel, I think you need to talk to your client about that.
MR. GABEL: I will talk to my client.
The prosecutor’s retort was not an attempt to mislead the Jury nor to invite the Jury to misapply the Court’s instructions. Indeed, the verdicts on the three submitted Counts belies that the Jury was effected at all with the by-play between the defendant and the prosecutor: the Jury returned a verdict of guilty on Tampering in the First degree, and not guilty of Possession of Cocaine, and not guilty of Possession of Codeine. It is difficult to reconcile that the Jury was misled by the prosecutor’s comments as to tampering but not as to the two drug counts. The answer is of course that the prosecutor’s comment had no impact on this Jury at all. The judge recognized it: “... I’m going to let it pass at this point without mentioning it to the Jury and telling them to disregard it ... ”, defense counsel recognized it: “... I’d rather it not be highlighted to the Jury ... ”; we should recognize it.
The penchant for bright-line rules, while understandable, allows for too quick consideration based on buzz-words, as opposed to the application of rules to ever-changing factual records. This case is an example. The words here alone are damning.
The result reached does not reflect the principle set out in Neff. I read Neff to say there is no hard and fast rule, and that reliance on § 546.270 RSMo. is here misplaced:
Section 546.270 was first enacted in 1877. 1877 Mo. Laws 356. Its primary purpose was to negate the common law rule that a defendant could not testify in his own defense. See State v. Chyo Chiagk, 92 Mo. 395, 4 S.W. 704, 707-08 (1887). It also preserved the pre-exist-ing constitutional prohibition against commenting on a defendant’s exercise of his right to remain silent.
By its terms, this statute does not mandate a mistrial in every case where there is a reference, direct or otherwise, to a defendant’s failure to testify. Neither has this Court held that a direct reference always requires a mistrial. For example, it is hard to imagine a more direct reference to the defendant’s failure to testify than for the trial court to give a jury an instruction on the subject....
No sound historical argument, rooted in the statute or the precedent of this Court, supports the sweeping claim that *615regardless of the circumstances, a direct reference to the defendant’s failure to testify mandates a mistrial.
Neff, 978 S.W.2d at 344-45.
These words from Neff neither compel nor condone the result reached.
Purists we are not else why allow confessions; fingerprints; blood tests; DNA samples; and the removal of foreign objects from a defendant. All surely are a more direct attack on the defendant’s right not to be compelled to testify than the words in context in the present case.
Simply put, we look for legal error, that means error of the judge. The majority states the standard correctly as State v. Clark, 112 S.W.3d 95 (Mo.App. W.D.2003). The Circuit Judge in this cause had heard twenty-six years worth of trials as a Judge before 16 June 2004, the response in this cause was not illogical but prudent; the ruling was fair and understood as such by counsel; justice was served not shocked.
Defendant raises two additional claims of error: the first is the refusal of Instruction A. Defendant sought his own verdict director based on MAI-CR3d 323.22. The form chosen by Defendant was a special negative defense which requires affirmative evidence of claim of right. As the Trial Judge recognized this evidence did not exist, thus no error; the remaining claim is brought by appellate counsel, not trial counsel. Appellate counsel now urges, with no contemporaneous objection at trial, plain error review of testimony of Bost and Monroe as to the disposition of the crimes to which they pled from this same incident.
There is simply no error. Trial counsel for Defendant must have believed Christmas was early when Bost and Malone testified as to their involvement and plea dispositions on direct by the prosecuting attorney. Defendant’s counsel clearly used this testimony to achieve two not guilty verdicts. A clearer example of trial strategy for not making an objection would be difficult to find.
In sum, two good young and aggressively competent young lawyers, a Trial Judge of twenty-six years, and a Jury met in Montgomery City and produced a fair result after a fair Trial. This case should be affirmed.
I dissent.

. A quick but thorough history of this privilege is found in, R. Carter Pitman, The Colonial and Constitutional History of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in America, 21 Va. L.Rev. 763 (1963).