Criminal Law: Burglary-Suppression of Police Interview-Clerical Error in Judgment

Defendant was convicted of burglary and felony murder after she convinced three male friends to obtain handguns, break into the victim’s home and shoot him to death. The trial court denied defendant’s challenge to various aspects of her statement to police.

Trial court correctly denied challenges to defendant’s interview where video recording showed defendant was coherent during her interview and detective’s misstatement of the law could not have coerced earlier alleged false statements by defendant; however, remand was necessary to correct misstatements about defendant’s conviction in her judgment of sentence.

Judgment is affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part.

State v. Sleeth (MLW No. 73042/Case No. SD35474 – 6 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Scott, J.) Appealed from Circuit Court, Greene County, Holden, J. (Philup Fuhrman and Nathan Aquino for plaintiff) (William Swift and Samuel Edward Buffaloe for defendant)