Criminal Law: Severance – Sufficiency Of Evidence – Reasonable Resistance

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State v. French (MLW No. 60485/Case No. ED92992 – 11 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Cohen, J.)

(1) Where a defendant was charged with 14 counts, including forcible rape, sodomy  and kidnapping, joinder of the offenses, which involved three victims, was proper because the victims, offenses, tactics and locations were sufficiently similar, and the defendant did not show prejudice from the trial court’s refusal to sever the offenses.

(2) Where a defendant convicted of forcible sodomy argued that the state failed to carry its burden to prove forcible compulsion, the state does not need to show that the victim physically resisted the defendant’s physical force to show compulsion if the victim submitted through fear of personal violence, and the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction.

Judgment is affirmed.

State v. French (MLW No. 60485/Case No. ED92992 – 11 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Cohen, J.) Appealed from circuit court, St. Louis City, Quigless, J. (N. Scott Rosenblum for appellant) (Shaun J. Mackelprang for respondent).

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