Joseph Whitfield

Case information

State of Missouri v. Joseph Whitfield, 939 S.W.2d 361 (Mo. banc 1997)

Timeline

• January 12, 1990 — Joseph Whitfield was sentenced to death.
• January 20, 1988 — The offences occurred involving Ronald Chester, Maria Evans, Joseph Whitfield, and a young girl.

Background

On January 20, 1988, Ronald Chester, a paraplegic, picked up Maria Evans in his modified Lincoln to help him run errands. Chester’s wheelchair was in the front passenger seat, and Evans sat in the back.

The offence

After completing the errands, Chester drove to the area of Sarah and Hodiamont streets in St. Louis, where he spoke with Joseph Whitfield. Whitfield was accompanied by a young girl that he identified as his daughter.

An unidentified woman approached Chester’s car, claimed to be the young girl’s mother, and asked Chester to take Whitfield and the girl home. Chester agreed. Whitfield and the young girl climbed into the rear seat with Evans. Whitfield sat in the left rear behind the driver’s seat, the young girl in the center rear, and Evans on the right.

At Whitfield’s request, Chester agreed to stop at a liquor store and then to take Whitfield to St. Ferdinand Street. When they arrived, Whitfield exited Chester’s car quickly, leaving the young girl behind. Chester waited thirty to forty minutes for Whitfield to return. When Whitfield did not return, Chester returned to the area of Sarah and Hodiamont streets to look for the woman who claimed to be the young girl’s mother, but he could not find her. Chester then returned to St. Ferdinand, carrying Evans and the young girl in his back seat.

When Chester returned to St. Ferdinand, he parked in the same spot where he had left Whitfield. After a few minutes, Whitfield returned to the car, asked where Chester had been, and said that he would be just a few more minutes. When Whitfield exited the car the second time, Evans asked him to take the young girl, but he refused. Whitfield walked along the street to a car parked on the opposite side from, and one or two car lengths behind, Chester’s car.

In that car were Charles Porter and his girlfriend Linda Scott. At trial, Scott testified they were in the neighborhood to have Varney Bolden, a friend of Porter’s, babysit Porter’s and Scott’s children. Porter was a friend of Whitfield’s, and Scott was acquainted with Whitfield.

Whitfield tried to obtain heroin from Porter and Scott, but Porter refused to give him any because Whitfield had no money. Porter then gave Whitfield a loaded .38 caliber pistol and said something, unclear from the testimony, about “the guy in the car across the street,” meaning Chester.

Whitfield left Porter’s car and returned to Chester’s car, reentering the back seat directly behind Chester. Evans was still in the rear passenger-side seat, and the young girl was in the center. Whitfield then struck Chester in the back of the head with the gun and struck Evans in the forehead with the gun.

Around the same time, Bolden walked up to Chester’s car and urged Whitfield to shoot the two adults. Whitfield complied, shooting Chester twice in the head, causing Chester to slump across the steering wheel. The car rolled across the street and across the opposite curb.

Whitfield then turned toward Evans, but Evans grabbed the young girl and used her as a shield. Instead of shooting, Whitfield exited the car, pulling the young girl with him. From the passenger side, he fired back into the car, at some point hitting Evans in the hand. Evans was hurt but alive, played dead, and Whitfield, Bolden, and the young girl fled.

Investigation and arrest

Officer Jerry Leyshock heard a report of the shooting on his police radio and, because he had been previously acquainted with Whitfield, suspected Whitfield might be involved. He went to Barnes Hospital to speak with Evans. Leyshock learned from Evans that the shooter and the young girl were named “Joe” and “Jodie.”

With that information, Leyshock and several other officers went to a residence on Wells Street, where they located Whitfield, Scott, and Jodie. After retrieving the gun from the residence’s bathroom, the officers arrested Whitfield.

Other details

Scott testified at trial about the babysitting arrangement involving Porter’s and Scott’s children and Varney Bolden. Porter refused to give Whitfield heroin because Whitfield had no money, and Porter gave Whitfield a loaded .38 caliber pistol after that refusal.