Court upholds Hosier murder conviction, death sentence

David R. Hosier will remain a prisoner on Missouri's death row at the Potosi Correctional Center.

Four months to the day after hearing arguments in the case, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Hosier's conviction and death sentence for the Sept. 28, 2009, murder of Angela Gilpin, 45, as she was leaving her West High Street apartment about 3:15 a.m., heading for her job as day manager of a Wardsville convenience store.

Her estranged husband, Rodney Gilpin, 61, was killed at the same time, but the 2013 Cole County trial only involved the charge in Angela's death.

A jury imported from St. Charles County spent about an hour deciding to convict Hosier of the killing and then - after the separate penalty phase evidence was presented - spent about three hours determining the death sentence was the appropriate punishment.

Because Presiding Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce imposed the death sentence, the appeal to the seven-judge Supreme Court was an automatic Missouri law requirement.

But Hosier's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Craig A. Johnston, told the court during the Oct. 3 oral argument that most of the evidence used to convict Hosier was obtained improperly and shouldn't have been allowed during the trial.

Hosier was arrested in Oklahoma several hours after the murders occurred.

Jefferson City police initially issued an alert to law officers in several surrounding states to look out for Hosier and his car, because he had "been identified as the primary suspect in the homicide investigation."

However, Johnston argued Oklahoma officials had been notified because AT&T officials had reported tracking his cell phone in the Sooner state.

Police had obtained a warrant asking AT&T to "ping" the cell phone, a technology which tracks a specific phone's location by the towers it connects with whenever making or receiving a call.

Johnston argued Jefferson City's police had no authority to get that information from AT&T, so notifying Oklahoma of Hosier's location and those officers' efforts to stop and arrest him all were violations of Hosier's Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution.

As part of her 25-page ruling for the unanimous court, Chief Justice Mary R. Russell wrote Hosier's failure to stop as soon as the Oklahoma trooper turned on his warning lights led to a "moderate speed chase" during which Hosier "violated numerous traffic laws and provided Oklahoma authorities with probable cause to stop him for those violations. Because Defendant was not seized until he yielded to police by stopping his car, and because there was probable cause to stop him for the traffic violations, the stop in Oklahoma did not violate the Fourth Amendment."

Russell also wrote: "The bulletproof vest, knife, gun and pistol holder police officers found on Defendant's person and in plain view in his car, in addition to the information they learned from JCPD, gave them probable cause to obtain and execute a search warrant independent of the ping order."

Johnston also had argued police didn't have "sufficient probable cause" to get a search warrant for Hosier's apartment in the 1100 block of West Main Street.

However, Russell wrote, the police detective's sworn affidavit included several pieces of information a court could accept for issuing a warrant.

She cited the affidavit's four sources for reports of Hosier threatening, stalking or harassing Angela Gilpin, providing probable cause.

During the Cole County trial, Prosecutor Mark Richardson had argued Hosier killed the Gilpins because he was angry that Angela was ending their relationship and working with Rodney to reconcile their 21-year marriage.

Although Hosier has not been tried or convicted of Rodney's murder, his death was an "aggravating circumstance" Richardson used to argue for a death sentence in Angela's murder - and the Supreme Court upheld that.

"The government showed that Defendant had been previously convicted for assault and battery in 1993 (in Indiana) when he handcuffed another girlfriend and beat her until she passed out," Russell wrote. "Additionally, Victim's murder was committed while Defendant was engaged in the murder of Husband."

Neither Richardson nor Johnston responded to a request to comment on the high court's ruling.