Forster v. State

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TRENTON E. FORSTER, Appellant, v. STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent

No. ED112008

Court of Appeals of Missouri, Eastern District, Second Division

October 8, 2024

Appeal from the Circuit Court of St. Louis County 21SL-CC02286 Honorable Kristine Kerr

Before Lisa P. Page, P.J., Renee Hardin-Tammons, J., and Rebeca Navarro-McKelvey, J.

Lisa P. Page, Presiding Judge

Trenton E. Forster (Movant) appeals from the motion court's judgment denying his Rule 29.15^[1] motion for post-conviction relief. This court affirmed Movant's convictions of first-degree murder, second-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, and two counts of armed criminal action following a jury trial. State v. Forster, 616 S.W.3d 436 (Mo. App. E.D. 2020). He received consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of probation or parole, seven years, and ten years each, respectively. We affirm.

Background

On October 6, 2016, at 5:06 a.m., St. Louis County Police Officers Blake Snyder (Officer Snyder) and John Becker (Officer Becker) responded to a 911 call from a residence on Arno Drive. At trial, Officer Becker testified that he followed Officer Snyder's patrol car into the subdivision where Movant was sitting in his car. Officer Snyder pulled his fully marked patrol vehicle immediately behind Movant's vehicle with his headlights shining directly into Movant's vehicle. Officer Becker stopped in front of Movant's vehicle and observed Officer Snyder, in uniform, approach and open the driver's side door. Officer Snyder first said, "hey bud," and then stated "show me your hands" and repeated "police, show me your hands." He heard his fellow officer's voice escalate in alarm. Movant then fatally shot Officer Snyder in the face.

Office Becker took cover and ordered Movant to show his hands. Movant responded, "I have a f---ing gun, kill me." As Movant kept moving within his car, Officer Becker opened fire on him. Movant exited his vehicle saying, "F---ing shoot me, I have a gun," and pointed his gun at Officer Becker. Officer Becker reloaded and fired several more shots at Movant, who dropped his gun and was handcuffed. In addition to the handgun used to shoot Officer Snyder, police recovered an AK-47, ammunition, and drug paraphernalia from Movant's car.

The State charged Movant with murder in the first degree for the shooting of Officer Snyder, assault of a law enforcement officer in the second degree with respect to Officer Becker and two counts of armed criminal action. The case proceeded to trial on January 30, 2019. Over the course of several days, the State called more than twenty witnesses. The State adduced evidence of Movant's conduct and mental state leading up to the incident. Movant obtained a handgun and an AK-47 within five days before the shooting incident. Movant's social media posts in the months leading up to the incident included statements such as "I want f--- the police carved into my grave[,]" "I feel bad for him, man, I hate the police so much[,]" "Please help me if possible, man, I'll explain why if I have to but I need Percocet, dude, like I'm legit about to go pull my .9 on a cop or some, I'm losing my f---ing mind dude," and "I'm not going back to jail it's like being dead. I'll pull that thing on an officer, I've been thinking about it for a minute - or a min, because I seriously am not getting locked up again."

Over Movant's objection, the State also played an audio recording and submitted a transcript of an excerpt from a June 2017 phone call between Movant and his father. The phone call occurred nine months after the shooting incident while Movant was in jail awaiting trial. During this call, Movant said that his father's "calling the police" on Movant was "some bi--- a--sh--." Movant continued by saying that he did not mean to say his father was "a bi--- . . . but it's just in general. I don't know, I just-it's-f--- the police, you know what I'm saying." Movant's father then talked about how most police are good people doing their job. Movant responded by saying that "most officers in general are people that have been f---ing like bullies most of their life, or have a reason to want to get back at other people."

The mother (Mother) of Movant's friend (Daughter) who lived at the home on Arno Drive testified about the events on the day prior to the incident. Movant and Daughter spent the afternoon "just hanging out" and smoking marijuana in the garage. After taking a video of Movant's obviously impaired condition, Mother told him he "was going to end up in one of two places, prison or he was going to die." Movant responded that he would shoot a cop before he would go to prison. Movant also told Mother that he was "f---ing some dude's b---- and this dude wanted to kill him." Movant left Mother's property that evening, but returned at 5 a.m. Mother was getting ready for work when she heard him arguing with her mother, who also lived there, at the back door of their home. She went outside, yelled at Movant to leave, and said she was calling the police. Movant stepped away but when he returned and began beating on their back door, Mother called the police at 5:03 a.m. She told the dispatcher there was a kid outside and he would not leave. Mother was peeking out of her bedroom blinds when she saw the two police cars "roll up" and an officer casually walked up to Movant's vehicle. She testified, "Yeah, I was peeking out the blinds talking to the guy I work with, and I seen [Movant] shoot the officer." She said she was not sure if Movant was in the car or had already gotten out of the car, but she saw Officer Snyder fall to the ground. She did not hear anything because her window was closed. After that, "chaos" ensued in her home with much screaming, but she went to the living room and saw Movant and Officer Becker exchange gunfire.

Movant maintained at trial that he lacked the requisite mental state to commit murder in the first degree, and that his act of shooting Officer Snyder to death constituted murder in the second degree. The defense called several witnesses, including a forensic psychologist (Doctor), to address Movant's mental state at the time of the shooting. Doctor testified she evaluated Movant prior to trial and conducted in-person interviews with Movant in June 2017. Doctor explained that Movant suffered from bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and polysubstance use disorder, which impacted Movant's behavior and thinking when he shot Officer Snyder. Doctor further testified about the "barrage of social media stuffed with all this [sic] antisocial attitudes that he has where he is saying F the police, and I don't care, and I want to take them out," noting that Movant experienced homicidal ideation associated specifically with police officers in connection with his bipolar disorder. Doctor concluded that Movant's conduct was not a deliberate attempt at "suicide by cop" and that:

At the time of the offense [Movant] was manic, suicidal, paranoid and emotionally unstable. His initial action of shooting Officer Snyder appears to have been instinctive, reflexive [sic] action, and the reaction of being approached from the side under dark environmental conditions, and internal conditions of heightened fear, paranoia and hopelessness.

During its deliberations, the jury requested information to clarify its understanding of deliberation by the defendant, asking for a transcript of Mother's trial testimony and a legal definition of "cool reflection." The jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts. The court sentenced Movant to life without parole pursuant to the statutory mandate on the count of first-degree murder, seven years in prison on the count of second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, and ten years in prison on each of the two counts of armed criminal action, with all counts to run consecutively. This court affirmed the convictions in Forster, 616 S.W.3d 436.

Movant filed his pro se motion to vacate, set aside or correct the judgment or sentence with the motion court on May 10, 2021. Post-conviction relief counsel (PCR Counsel) was appointed and, after receiving extensions, timely filed Movant's amended motion for postconviction relief (Amended Motion) on September 22, 2021. In his Amended Motion, Movant raised three claims that Trial Counsel had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Relevant to this appeal, Movant alleged Trial Counsel was ineffective for failing to impeach Mother with her own conflicting statements about the moments leading up to the shooting and the shooting itself that would have opened the door to favorable evidence that tended to show that Movant did not deliberate prior to the shooting.

Evidentiary hearing

The motion court held an evidentiary hearing on May 11, 2023, during which only Trial Counsel testified. Mother had passed away and was unavailable to testify. Trial Counsel confirmed the defense strategy at trial was diminished capacity, and that he relied on Officer Becker's trial testimony describing the shooting. Trial Counsel testified he was in possession of and reviewed the police report that contained Mother's initial statement, the transcript and recording of Mother's initial statement to police, and her deposition transcript. The police report containing Mother's statement just after the shooting occurred stated the following:

When asked, [Mother] said [Movant] was still seated in driver's seat of his car when the gunshot was fired. [Mother] also said the police officer approached [Movant's] car in the normal manner. She said he was immediately shot. As a result she did not believe he had the chance to say anything to [Movant] but she was unsure as her bedroom

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