Criminal Law-Forgery-Evidentiary Rulings

Defendant appealed his conviction for forgery, filing false documents, attempted stealing by deceit and harassment, stemming from his efforts to defraud and harass the victim and take her house from her to sell it. On appeal, defendant challenged the sufficiency of the evidence and various evidentiary rulings by the trial court.      

Where the trial evidence showed that defendant signed the victim’s name on legal documents and filed them with government officers in an attempt to sell the victim’s home to investors or to rent it to tenants, and then proceeded to threaten to have the victim’s children removed from her custody, there was sufficient evidence for the jury’s verdict, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding unauthenticated documents. However, the court remanded for the trial court to correct the written judgment to conform to the jury’s verdict. 

Judgment is affirmed in part and remanded in part. 

State v. Harper (MLW No. 84873/Case No. SD38807 – 33 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, per curiam) Appealed from circuit court, Greene County, Christensen, J. (Ellen H. Flottman, Columbia and Amy Clay, St. Louis for appellant) (Riley Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Jefferson City and Joshua David Harrell, Springfield for respondent)