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[W] Bailey v. State7/12/2005
Willis Bailey appeals the judgment denying his Rule 24.035 motion after an evidentiary hearing. We affirm.
I. BACKGROUND
Bailey was charged with two counts of first-degree murder relating to the deaths of a woman who Bailey knew was three-months pregnant with his child. He was also charged with an armed criminal action count for each of these murders. The indictment charged that Bailey "after deliberation, knowingly caused the death of [the pregnant woman] by stabbing her." In a separate count, the indictment charged that Bailey "after deliberation, knowingly caused the death of [the pregnant woman] and at the same time caused the death of her unborn child by stabbing her."
Bailey agreed to plead guilty to all counts in exchange for the State's agreement not to recommend the death penalty. At the plea hearing, the court told Bailey that he was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree and two counts of armed criminal action all occurring on the same date, and Bailey said that he understood the charges. He also indicated that his lawyers had gone through, in detail, what the State would have to prove in order to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as to each of the elements of the crimes with which he was charged.
The State presented the following factual basis for the charges at the plea hearing: Bailey stabbed the pregnant woman five times in the chest and neck while her hands were bound together behind her back. The stab wounds to her heart and carotid artery were fatal. At the time, she was three-months pregnant with Bailey's child, and Bailey was aware of this fact. The unborn child died as a result of this murder as well. After Bailey agreed that those facts were substantially true and correct, the State added that Bailey, "before he committed this offense, coolly reflected upon it and premeditated before he in fact caused this assault that resulted in the death of [the pregnant woman]." Bailey then agreed that the facts as supplemented were substantially true and correct and were the facts to which he was pleading guilty. The court accepted his guilty pleas on all four counts and sentenced Bailey to concurrent terms of life imprisonment without probation or parole on the two murder counts and life imprisonment on the related armed criminal action counts.
Bailey filed a motion for post-conviction relief under Rule 24.035 in which he claimed that there was no factual basis for his guilty pleas on the counts relating to the unborn child. He alleged that an unborn child is not a person under the first-degree murder statute, section 565.020.1 RSMo 2000, and that, alternatively, there was no charge in the indictment that he deliberated on the murder of the unborn child and no facts presented at the plea hearing showing that he deliberated about killing the unborn child. After a hearing, the court denied Bailey's motion, concluding that (1) an unborn child is a person for purposes of first-degree murder, (2) the factual basis for establishing that Bailey deliberated on the murder of the pregnant woman constituted a factual basis for deliberation as to the murder of the unborn child under the doctrine of transferred intent and (3) Bailey had not alleged or demonstrated that any prejudice resulted from his guilty pleas to the counts relating to the unborn child because he had been sentenced to life without probation or parole on the counts relating to pregnant woman, which he had not challenged. Bailey appeals.
II. DISCUSSION
We review the denial of a post-conviction motion under Rule 24.035 to determine whether the motion court's findings of fact and conclusions of law were clearly erroneous. Weeks
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