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Date: 11-12-1980
Case Style:
State of Missouri v. Sandra Hemme
Case Number:
Judge: Frank Connett
Court: Circuit Court, Buchanan County, Missouri
Plaintiff's Attorney: Buchanan County Missouri District Attorney's Office
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey
Defendant's Attorney: Dale Sullivan
Larry D. Harman on appeal
The Innocence Project.
Description:
Justice Went to Hell in Chillicothe, Missouri when Sandra Hemme was convicted of murder.
Sandra Hemme, age 21, was charged with the 1980 stabbing death of library worker Patricia Jeschke in St. Joseph, Missouri.
The Missouri Supreme Court described the case against Sandra Hemme as follows:
"Appellant was charged with the murder of one Patricia Jeschke on N
ovember 12, 1980 by stabbing and strangling the victim. No witnesses to the crime were reported and the record of the plea hearing includes no description of the evidence the state would have offered at trial, save only the statements obtained from movant herself. The file suggests that movant was first interrogated about the crime on December 5, 1980 and on December 10, 1980, she confessed to having perpetrated the homicide.
Certain facts relative to movant's medical history and circumstances were not in dispute. Some of the information entered the record for the first time at the hearing on the 27.26 motion while other details were available at the time the plea of guilty was accepted. The same judge who imposed sentence did not conduct the 27.26 motion hearing. Counsel who represented movant on the criminal charge testified at the motion hearing, but at that time, movant had retained another attorney to present the motion. The gist of the motion claim was that criminal trial counsel had failed to make minimal preparation of the defense and had, instead, actively promoted entry of a guilty plea notwithstanding movant's lengthy history of mental illness induced by drug abuse.
At the time the guilty plea was entered, appellant was 21 years of age. She had first received psychiatric treatment in 1972 at age 13 when she attempted suicide. In the eight years which followed, appellant was successively admitted to a number of treatment institutions in Kansas City, St. Louis, Jefferson City, Columbia and in the State of Maryland with the consequence that in the aggregate, she was hospitalized six of the eight years preceding the crime charged in this case. She attempted suicide three or four more times and had a history of seven admissions to the St. Joseph State Hospital where she was a patient at the time of her arrest. According to the state's reconstruction of events, appellant left the hospital the day of the killing and returned there that night.
The record here does not include all material from the criminal file. It does appear that appellant was first charged with the subject offense on or about December 5, 1980 after which the grand jury returned an indictment on December 23. Private counsel was retained for appellant by her father, apparently soon after her arrest. There is no record of when the attorney undertook to represent appellant because the attorney filed no entry of appearance and no motions or pleadings of any kind in the case. He was selected, according to appellant's father, because he had known the family for about ten years and had represented appellant as a juvenile when she was sent to a Kansas City hospital for psychiatric treatment and therapy.
Appellant entered her guilty plea April 10, 1981. In the first segment of the hearing, appellant professed not to have a clear recollection of the killing or any of the events that day. As she described it, the occurrence was not her act but as though she were a spectator watching from the outside. The responses did not satisfy the court and the guilty plea was refused. There is no indication in the record of the plea hearing that the trial court was given any information about appellant's history of institutional treatment or that concern about appellant's competence was at the root of the initial refusal to accept the plea. As the court stated, the testimony offered by appellant was simply not sufficient to satisfy all the elements of the offense of capital murder and the state made no offer to show what its proof would be apart from appellant's confession.
At this point, the prosecutor interceded to obtain a recess, evidently to assist appellant in clearing her memory. During the recess, according to appellant's testimony at the motion hearing, the prosecutor and appellant's attorney jointly instructed her as to how she should respond to the court's questions to assure acceptance of the plea. The hearing resumed after fifteen minutes, *736 appellant described in some detail to the court the killing of Patricia Jeschke accomplished by appellant alone and the plea was accepted. Defense counsel asked no questions of appellant and made no statement on her behalf. The court immediately sentenced appellant to life imprisonment without parole for fifty years. She was transported to the Department of Corrections five days later.
At the motion hearing, appellant's attorney at the criminal trial testified that he had prepared the case by reviewing the prosecuting attorney's file, by talking with appellant and by examining appellant's file at the St. Joseph State Hospital. He also made some investigation as to other persons appellant described as involved in the offense and gave that information to the St. Joseph Police Department. The attorney agreed he was at the time acquainted with appellant's history of hospitalization during the previous eight years and also with her record as a patient at the time the offense was committed. The attorney said appellant's history and condition raised a doubt in his mind as to appellant's competency to proceed and doubt as to her mental capacity at the time the crime was committed. Despite this doubt, the attorney filed no motion for a mental examination, gave no information to the court as to appellant's history of hospitalization and treatment and he gave no notice of intention to rely on the defense of mental disease or defect. As he described it, he "was really not impressed with this defense." See: 680 S.W.ed 734 (1984).
According to the brief filed by the Innocence Project stated:
"1. On Wednesday November 12, 1980, Patricia Jeschke worked her regular
secretarial job shift at the St. Joseph Public Library from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.2 She was
dressed in a white and gray three-piece pants suit.3 A co-worker saw her at the office at
4:55 p.m.; she told that co-worker that she had plans to attend a class at St. Francis
Xavier Church at 7 p.m. that evening.4 At approximately 5:00 p.m., Ms. Jeschke was
seen by an acquaintance driving alone in her small, two-seated white sports car through
downtown St. Joseph.5
2. The next day, after Ms. Jeschke did not arrive at work, her employer called
her mother, who went to Ms. Jeschke’s home at 1502 Riverside Road, Apt. 1 to
investigate.6 Her mother, Helen McGlothlin, discovered her daughter’s body lying in a
pool of blood on the bedroom floor.7 A pillow had been placed over Ms. Jeschke’s face,
and her hands were bound with telephone cords behind her back.8 There were no signs of
forced entry to Jeschke’s home.9
3. The Saint Joseph Police Department (“SJPD”) recovered two black hairs
from Ms. Jeschke’s bedsheet.10 Two lengths of cut TV antenna wire were found on the
floor nearby Ms. Jeschke’s body.11 The wires were flat and plastic, and suitable for
fingerprinting.12
4. Newspaper photographer Ival Lawhon was allowed inside Ms. Jeschke’s
apartment to document the crime scene.13 Ms. Jeschke’s murder attracted substantial
media attention14 and was covered by newspapers across Missouri.15 On November 14,
the murder was the top story in both of St. Joseph’s daily newspapers, the St. Joseph
Gazette and the St. Joseph News-Press.16 A photograph of Ms. Jeschke’s bedroom,
where her body was found, was published on the Friday morning edition of the Gazette.17
Ms. Jeschke’s floral print bedspread and pillow were visible in the image, as was a blood
stain on the floor; the caption of the photo read: “Detective Tom Randall checks evidence
in bedroom where body of Patricia Jeschke was discovered.”18 The exterior of Ms.
Jeschke’s home was pictured on the front page as well, and her address was listed.19
5. The two news articles published on November 14 about Ms. Jeschke’s
murder contained many details about the facts of the murder, including: that she was
found nude, with a pillow over her head; that her hands were bound behind her back with
a telephone cord; that a ligature was tied around her throat; and that there were three
wounds to her head, caused by both blunt and sharp objects. Additionally, the exact
location of her apartment and photographs of her apartment’s location on the street were
featured, as well as pictures of Ms. Jeschke and details about her plans on the night she
went missing.20 In the weeks following the murder, details published in the initial stories
about Ms. Jeschke’s murder were repeated in subsequent news coverage. The case was
also covered by TV news programs.21 As time passed without an arrest, articles about
the lack of progress in the investigation were published.22
6. Numerous witnesses saw what St. Joseph Police Department Officer
Michael Holman would later admit was his pickup truck near the victim’s home at the
time she was killed.23 One witness observed that the truck was “white and very clean. It
had a roll bar and set up pretty high…. The grill had a lot of black in it.”24 A different
neighbor saw a white pickup truck parked next to the victim’s home as late as 7:30
p.m.
7. Detective Howard Judd testified at the evidentiary hearing that this truck
lead was significant in the early investigation of Patricia Jeschke’s murder.26 A sketch of
the truck was taken to every roll call and shown to every officer in the department in an
effort to locate the truck and its owner.27
8. Michael Holman would give a statement claiming that the reason he was
right next to the victim’s home at the time she was killed was because he was sleeping
with a woman he named only as “Mary” at the Woodlawn Court Motel, and that he found
the victim’s credit card within a purse lying near the ditch on the western side of
Riverside Road upon leaving the motel.28 Notably, in her Nov. 13 statement, Woodlawn
Court Motel owner Vicky Heberlee provided a list of guests who were staying at the
motel the night of Ms. Jeschke’s murder and Michael Holman was not one of them.29
Further, none of the guests listed could have been Holman under an assumed name, as all
were white; Holman was Black.30 Additionally, the motel had designated parking spots
where guests would park, instead of on the street.31
9. Ms. Jeschke’s credit card was used on November 13, 1980, the day after
she was killed.32 A Black man with a badge in his wallet attempted to pass the card off as
his own to purchase a lens at a Kansas City camera store.33 Police did not learn of the
credit card’s use until December 8.34 On December 19, detectives determined the man
who used her credit card was Michael Holman.35
10. Det. Fueston interviewed Ms. Hemme at St. Joseph State Hospital for the
first time on November 28, 1980.36 Det. Fueston observed Ms. Hemme, who was
involuntarily committed, to be “not totally cognizant of what was going on”37 and that
she “tended to wander when responding to questions.”38 He found it difficult to follow
the information that she relayed during these interviews,39 and found her ability to focus
to be inconsistent.40 He also observed that Ms. Hemme suffered from memory lapses.41
Nursing records reflect that Ms. Hemme had been injected with both antipsychotic
medication and a powerful sedative shortly before she was questioned, and that she was
experiencing painful muscle spasms due to an adverse reaction to the antipsychotic
medication.42
11. After Det. Fueston showed Ms. Hemme a single photograph of Patricia
Jeschke, Ms. Hemme indicated that she may gotten high with her and caught a ride from
her in a small brown car the day she had left the hospital, November 12.43 The nurses’
notes contain details not mentioned in Det. Fueston’s police report, and state “she
vaguely remembers getting a ride… [and] thinks a man may have been in the back seat of
the small car with the woman who picked her up but ‘I was pretty spacey + I don’t really
remember much of anything.’”44 When asked where she went with Ms. Jeschke, Ms.
Hemme said “she wasn’t sure, maybe Dearborn.”45
12. On December 1, Det. Fueston again questioned Ms. Hemme while she was
involuntarily committed at St. Joseph Hospital and in that statement, Ms. Hemme said
that she got picked up by a man and a woman driving a “78 or 79 model, very light blue,
two door” car.46 The man’s name was “Joe,” and he was around 28 years old, white,
5’8”, 120-125 pounds, knock-kneed and double jointed, with a thick black mustache.47
This description very closely resembles how Det. Fueston described Robert a.k.a. Bobby
Cummings of St. Joseph, Missouri, who later would tell police he was the person who
drove Ms. Hemme to Dearborn on November 12.48 She said that “Joe” asked her to sit
on his face at the Faucett exit, to which she agreed.49 Ms. Hemme said that she was then
dropped off at the Dearborn exit, whereupon she hitchhiked the rest of the way to
Concordia, arriving around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.50 The only description she could give of
the woman was that she was wearing all blue.51 Det. Fueston wrote that Ms. Hemme’s
statement was “not consistent with other witness statements and reports, i.e. times and
locations.”52
13. On December 2, when Ms. Hemme was questioned a third time, she now
described leaving the hospital at 1:00 p.m. on November 12 and getting picked up by a
man and a woman in downtown St. Joseph.53 She indicated that the woman in the car
was the same woman in the photograph that Det. Fueston showed her on November 28;
she said this woman was wearing “a light blue suit.” In this statement, Ms. Hemme now
gave the name Joe Wabski for the male driver.54 According to the statement, the victim,
who introduced herself as “Pat,” was a passenger in Wabski’s car.55 The three then drove
to Skaggs Pharmacy – a different pharmacy than the one that the victim had patronized
the morning of November 12, hours before Ms. Hemme was discharged from the hospital
– and then continued on their drive, at one point stopping so Ms. Jeschke could go inside
a “two-story red brick house,” a detail that does not appear again in her statements or the
record.56 According to this statement, Ms. Hemme was then driven by Wabski to Ms.
Jeschke’s home, where she waited in the car while Wabski and Ms. Jeschke went
inside.57 Wabski, with blood on his shirt, then returned to the car without Jeschke and
told Ms. Hemme that he had “killed the fucking bitch.” According to the statement, Ms.
Hemme was then driven to an overpass off of I-29, was asked to sit on Wabski’s face at
his request, and then was dropped off at Dearborn.58 Of this interview, Det. Fueston
reported that: "As before, Ms. Hemme's time reference and locations seemed
inconsistent, so additional interviews will be conducted."59
14. On December 3 at 10:40 a.m., the eighth day of Ms. Hemme’s involuntary
hold, investigators took Ms. Hemme from the hospital to the crime scene.60 Ms. Hemme
was gone from the hospital for nearly six hours61 with no medical personnel and without
receiving her prescribed antipsychotic medications.62 Ms. Hemme was shown a photo
lineup while sitting in a police vehicle, and she identified Joe Wabski.63 According to
Det. Fueston, Ms. Hemme was able to lead the investigators to Ms. Jeschke’s home.64
Ms. Hemme indicated “she knew about this incident because of ‘ESP’.”65
15. Det. Fueston took her inside the then-empty apartment.66 Det. Fueston
testified at trial that Ms. Hemme described how Joe Wabski committed the murder.67
Det. Fueston then showed Ms. Hemme four photographs, which included images of Ms.
Jeschke’s nude body;68 her hands bound behind her back with telephone wire;69 the
pantyhose around her throat;70 the flower print design of her bedspread and pillow;71 and
the two lengths of TV antenna wire found on the floor above her head and to her side.72
The State would introduce these photographs at Ms. Hemme’s trial in 1985.73
16. That same day, Ms. Hemme gave a written statement at 2:40 p.m. at the
police station.74 This statement contained a significantly different account of events from
her previous statements.75 Now, Ms. Jeschke was not a passenger in the car that picked
Ms. Hemme up; instead, Wabski was alone in the car and drove Ms. Hemme to Ms.
Jeschke’s home.76 There, Ms. Hemme witnessed Wabski sexually assault and stab Ms.
Jeschke upon her bed, before dragging her body to the floor, binding her wrists, and
strangling her with pantyhose.77 Now, too, Ms. Hemme’s statement included details
about the victim’s home: she described a floral print pillow;78 an 8”x10” graduation
photo on the wall;79 macrame on Ms. Jeschke’s couch80; and a mahogany television set
that stood on legs.81 Ms. Hemme also described seeing a brown car parked in Ms.
Jeschke’s drive,82 and that she observed a large white cat walk into the house.83 As in her
previous statements, Ms. Hemme allegedly told Det. Fueston that she was driven to and
dropped off at the Dearborn exit, with a stop at the Faucett exit where she sat on Wabski’s
face at his request.84
17. On December 5, Ms. Hemme was questioned again and gave another
statement in which she described for the first time cutting a TV antenna wire for Wabsk
to use to bind Ms. Jeschke’s hands.85 She also described for the first time taking from
Ms. Jeschke’s home a jacket, a blue and white bandana, a Playgirl magazine, and a pair
of red gloves, which she left at her parents’ home in Concordia later that evening.86
These items had been recovered from Ms. Hemme’s possessions at her parents’ home on
December 1.87
18. That same day, based on her statements, Ms. Hemme was arrested and
charged with concealing an offense.88 Based on Ms. Hemme’s statements, Det. Fueston
and other investigators travelled to Kansas on December 5 to arrest Joseph Wabski, who
was charged with capital murder.89 Det. Fueston searched Wabski’s home for evidence
including: “knife, credit cards, purse, and/or contents, a white hand towel.”90 No items
linking Wabski to the murder were found.
19. Investigators concluded that Wabski could not possibly have committed the
murder: he was in a locked detox facility in Topeka, Kansas when Ms. Jeschke was
killed.92 The capital murder charges against Wabski were dismissed on December 10,
1980.93
20. On December 9, Ms. Hemme was questioned again during which time Det.
Fueston told her Wabski had a confirmed alibi and could not have participated in the
crime. Ms. Hemme reacted to news that Wabski had been cleared with disbelief,94
accusing Det. Fueston of lying to her95 and saying that she was going crazy.96
21. After Ms. Hemme had been told Wabski could not have committed the
murder, Wabski’s name disappeared from her subsequent statements. In the December 9
statement, Ms. Hemme repeatedly told her interrogators that she did not remember the
crime,97 but now claimed that she alone had been picked up by Ms. Jeschke and taken to
her home so Ms. Jeschke could “get cleaned up”.98 She expressed doubt about what
happened, saying that “she really didn’t know if she killed her or not.”99 Det. Fueston
testified that a written statement could not be taken due to her emotional state.100 After
ending the interview, Det. Fueston told a sheriff that Ms. Hemme had told him that she
attempted suicide while held at the Buchanan County Jail.101 Det. Fueston then told his
commanding officer he could no longer question Ms. Hemme because he had reached his
limit, was no longer effective, and knew he was not “getting the truth.”102
22. On December 10, Ms. Hemme was questioned again. After speaking with
law enforcement for an undocumented amount of time, a court reporter was then brought
in to take a statement.103 The resulting statement was read into evidence at Ms. Hemme’s
trial and reflected what would become the State’s ultimate theory of Ms. Hemme’s guilt:
that she had killed Ms. Jeschke alone.104
23. In this statement, Ms. Hemme claimed she was picked up by Ms. Jeschke,
who was driving a small brown car.105 When asked how she knew Ms. Jeschke, Ms.
Hemme said: “The library. They say I know her at Platt’s, but I don’t remember her from
Platt’s.”106 She described cutting antenna wire from the living room TV to bind Ms.
Jeschke’s hands, only to find that “it didn’t work” as ligature.107 The statement included
details about the layout of the apartment,108 as well as the flowered pattern of her bed
spread, and the size, color and design of her purse.109 Ms. Hemme described stabbing
Ms. Jeschke110 and using pantyhose to strangle her.111 She also repeated that she took
from Ms. Jeschke’s apartment a Playgirl magazine,112 a CPO jacket,113 a pair of
gloves,114 and a bandana,115 and that she saw a white cat come into the apartment as Ms.
Hemme was leaving.116
24. A Playgirl magazine Ms. Hemme claimed she took from Ms. Jeschke and a
TV antenna cord she claimed to have handled during the murder were sent to the FBI for
fingerprinting.117 Investigators tried to find a knife and purse Ms. Hemme claimed to
have discarded, respectively, in Battlefield Park in Lexington, Missouri and in a ditch on
6th St. in Kansas City, Missouri following the killing. On December 10, Ms. Hemme
drew diagrams at investigators’ request to show where she had discarded the knife and
purse. Investigators searched those locations and found neither a knife nor a purse.
Det. Boyer testified at trial that there was no ditch where Ms. Hemme alleged to have
discarded the purse in a ditch, only sidewalks.119 Following this statement, Ms. Hemme
was charged with the capital murder of Patricia Jeschke.120
25. On January 23, 1981, Bobby Cummings of St. Joseph wrote a letter to Ms.
Hemme in jail, stating: “Dear Sandy, do you remember me? I gave you the ride to the
Dearborn exit on 12 Nov, 1980. Would it be possible to see you?”121 Mr. Cummings had
dark hair, a mustache, and a physical disability similar to cerebral palsy,122 closely
resembling the dark-haired, “knock-kneed and double jointed” man with a mustache that
Ms. Hemme described to Det. Fueston in her December 1 statement.123
26. Five days later, Dale Sullivan, Ms. Hemme’s defense attorney, called Det.
Fueston.124 Sullivan told Det. Fueston that Ms. Hemme told him she did not kill the
victim, but was present when two men did: Bobby Cummings and someone named
Charles P. White, Jr.125 On February 2, Det. Fueston interviewed Cummings, who
described giving Ms. Hemme a ride from St. Joseph to the Dearborn exit on the afternoon
of November 12.126 He said he was driving his 1980 two-tone tan-colored Dodge Omni
alone when he saw a girl he had never seen before hitchhiking by J.C. Penney’s Auto
Center on Frederick Ave.127 The girl—Ms. Hemme—was “obviously under the influence
of something, and indicated it was speed.”128 He told her his name and that he was going
as far as Dearborn and would give her a ride that far.129 He shared that he had a bad back
and the only thing that helped was to have someone walk on his back.130 He asked Ms.
Hemme if she would walk on his back; he pulled off into a field by the Faucett overpass
and she walked on his back.131 Then, they got back in his car and he dropped her at the
Dearborn exit.132 Cummings, who per Det. Fueston’s report “suffers from a disease
similar to cerebral palsy and is very uncoordinated, and has a speech impediment,”133
denied playing any role in the murder and stated that he did not know the victim and did
not know a man named Charles White.134 He said he was willing to take a polygraph.
27. Det. Fueston testified at Ms. Hemme’s Motion to Set Aside Plea Hearing
pursuant to Rule 27.26 that he had no reason to doubt that Cummings played no role in
the murder and had no reason to doubt his account that he picked up Ms. Hemme alone,
dropped her off alone miles away from St. Joseph, and never had contact with the
victim.136 Ms. Hemme’s jury heard no evidence about Cummings’ memory of November
12, nor how it undermined both her statements and any possibility she was involved in
the murder.
28. In March of 1981, allegations that the SJPD covered up an FBI report
connecting Michael Holman to the murder were reported in television and print media.137
This new information was integrated into a statement attributed to Ms. Hemme, one that
contradicted details of both her prior statements and known facts of the crime: on April 7,
three days before she pled guilty, Ms. Hemme gave a statement at the Buchanan County
Jail in which she once again claimed to have been picked up by a male driver who later
killed Ms. Jeschke. This time, the driver was Holman. "Joe,” who Ms. Hemme had
mentioned previously and later claimed was Joseph Wabski, resurfaced in Ms. Hemme’s
latest statement; now, Joe was a twelve-year-old boy who accompanied Holman.138 Ms.
Hemme told police that after murdering the victim, Holman showed her photos of a
second victim in a trash bag and told her he had killed and buried the woman along a
river bank.139 When shown a photograph of Holman in a mugshot array, however, Ms.
Hemme could not identify him."
Outcome: "On April 10, 1981, Ms. Hemme pled guilty to a Class A felony charge of
capital murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.141 When Ms. Hemme was asked to describe what she had done, she made repeated vague and
equivocal statements.142 Upon questioning from prosecutor Mike Insco, Ms. Hemme
stated: “I think so [regarding whether Ms. Jeschke picked up Ms. Hemme hitchhiking]. I can’t say for sure whether that is how I got with Pat or not. It is pretty well messed up… I really didn’t know I had done it until like three days later, you know, when it came out in the paper and on the news…. I didn’t think I had honestly done it until I seen it in the paper, you know.”143 The judge refused to accept the plea, and the prosecutor and Mr. Sullivan requested a short recess.144 After the recess, Ms. Hemme gave a different and more detailed narrative, and the plea was accepted."
The judgment of conviction is reversed and the cause is remanded with direction that appellant be allowed to withdraw her plea of guilty.
Hemme's attorney established by clear and convincing evidence that she was actually innocent in 2024.
According to the Innocence Project, former St. Joseph police officer Michael Holman was the killer and the state did not disclose substantial evidence that not guilty.
Hemme had been the longest-held wrongly incarcerated woman known in the U.S., according to her legal team at the Innocence Project.
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