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Criminal Law : Child Molestation – Sufficiency Of Evidence – Jury Instructions
Stephanie Maniscalco//April 3, 2017//
Where a defendant challenged his conviction for first-degree child molestation, the jury could infer from testimony that the defendant touched the victim with his genitals, so the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction, but the jury instruction’s omission of a specific criminal act to support the charge or a verdict director describing the separate criminal acts and instructing the jury to agree unanimously on the occurrence of at least one of the acts was plain error.
Judgment is affirmed in part; reversed in part.
State v. Drake (MLW No. 70358/Case No. WD78996 – 15 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Newton, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Jackson County, Roldan, J. (Damien De Loyola, Kansas City, Missouri, argued for appellant) (Christine Lesicko, Jefferson City, for respondent).
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