Criminal Law : Child Abuse – Evidence

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(1)Where the defendant told a law enforcement officer a 14-month-old boy was under his care while the boy’s mother was in the shower and he went outside to smoke, the only people in the home the home at the time were the defendant, the mother, the boy and his 2-year-old sister; the mother testified that her son had a knot on his temple after her shower that was not there before; a board-certified child abuse pediatrician testified that the injuries were consistent with blunt force trauma and there was no history that the boy’s sibling caused similar injuries; the evidence was sufficient for the jury to convict the defendant of child abuse.

(2) Where the trial court allowed into evidence a message from the defendant’s MySpace account to the mother’s MySpace account, there was sufficient evidence presented that the account belonged to the defendant and the testimony of the defendant’s girlfriend that she sent the message because she wanted to get the defendant in trouble was not a clear abuse of discretion and it was up to the jury to determine the weight to give to the message.

Judgment is affirmed.

State of Missouri v. Snow (MLW No. 66747/Case No. SD32888 — 11 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Rahmeyer, J.) Appealed from the circuit court, Jasper County, Mouton, J. (Rosalyn Koch, Columbia, for appellant) (Adam Stephen Rowley, Jefferson City, for respondent).

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