Appeals court upholds conviction in 2003 Joplin murder

The Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals today upheld the murder conviction of William R. Hartman, 65, Joplin.

The following description of the crime was included in the opinion:

On February 4, 2003, Defendant and his wife, Sherry Hartman, entertained several friends at their home in Joplin, drinking and eating dinner together. Their guests included the victim, Alfred Smith ("Smitty"), Curtis Downton, and John Adams and his girlfriend, Tina Schacht. At some point in the evening, Defendant, Smitty and Downton began fighting. Smitty was yelling loudly, and Defendant and Downton pushed him out of the house. They then pushed Smitty off of the porch and into the street, where the three men continued to fight. When the men reached the other side of the street, Defendant "slew" Smitty into a ditch. Defendant then crushed Smitty’s face with a rock. Defendant and Downton left Smitty lying in the ditch and returned to Defendant’s house.
The next morning around 6 a.m., Adams woke up and left his house, which was near Defendant’s house, to walk to work. As Adams walked by the ditch across from Defendant’s house, he saw a body lying in the ditch. He ran to his landlord’s house, told him about the body, and asked him to call 9-1-1. The men walked back over to the ditch and looked at the body; Adams then realized that it was Smitty.
Paramedics arrived at the scene and attached a cardiac monitor to Smitty to see if there was any cardiac activity; there was none. Sergeant Michael Hobson was the first officer to respond to the scene around 7:20 a.m. Smitty’s body was lying face-up in the ditch with his face swollen and bloody. Sergeant Hobson recognized the victim as Alfred "Smitty" Smith. He then called in some other officers and secured the crime scene.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy determined that Smitty died as a result of severe blunt-force trauma to the face that caused a subdural hematoma. His injuries were consistent with being hit at least twice in the head. In the pathologist’s opinion, the two rocks found at the scene lying on either side of Smitty’s head could have caused his death if used with enough force. Red stains on the rocks were later determined to be human blood.

Hartman did not claim innocence in his appeal, but said hearsay testimony was improperly allowed, and photo enlargements prejudiced the jury,