Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Where a defendant challenged his sentence in a drug case, the district court did not err in failing to depart to a lower criminal history category or to vary downward, and the sentence was not substantively unreasonable, so the judgment ...

Tagged with: criminal history sentencing

Defendant appealed the denial of his motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and conspiracy to launder money. Although the magistrate questioned the factual basis for defendant’s plea to the money-laundering charge, the district ...

Tagged with: Conspiracy to Distribute Failure to Object to Lack of Factual Basis ineffective assistance of counsel

Where a defendant challenged her convictions in an involuntary manslaughter case arguing that her recorded statements should not have been admitted at trial because she had not been properly informed of her Miranda rights, under the totality of the circumstances, ...

Tagged with: Custodial Interrogation Miranda

Defendant pleaded guilty to a drug offense pursuant to a plea agreement that contained an appeal waiver. Defendant appealed his above-guidelines sentence as substantively unreasonable. Where defendant’s appeal fell within the scope of his appeal waiver, the court dismissed the ...

Tagged with: Above-Guidelines Sentence appeal waiver Drug Offense

Defendant pleaded guilty to carjacking and possession of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Following sentencing, defendant unsuccessfully moved to correct his sentence in the wake of Johnson v. U.S., 1315 S.Ct. 2551, which ruled that the ...

Tagged with: Carjacking Possession of Firearm in Crime of Violence Residual Clause

Where a defendant, who was convicted of attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, argued that he abandoned his intent to engage in sex with the minor after learning it was illegal, the jury was not required ...

Tagged with: Enticement of Minor intent Sufficiency Of Evidence

Where a defendant challenged his sentence in a methamphetamine case, the defendant’s Missouri drug-offense conviction qualified as a controlled-substance offense under the guidelines, so the judgment is affirmed because the district court did not err in finding that he qualified ...

Tagged with: Career Offender sentencing

(1)Where a defendant in a first-degree murder case challenged his death sentence, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by sustaining the state’s motion to strike a prospective juror for cause because the juror’s ambiguous statements created uncertainty about ...

Tagged with: death penalty Photographic Evidence voir dire

Where appellant challenged the denial of his petition for the expungement of his second-degree robbery conviction, the trial court erred in concluding that the conviction was ineligible for expungement under the relevant statute. Judgment is reversed and remanded. R.H. v. ...

Tagged with: Expungement Ineligible Offenses

Where a defendant challenged warrants for the installation of GPS trackers, the affidavits supporting each warrant application provided probable cause to believe that the defendant was involved in drug trafficking, and supporting affidavits established that confidential informants had a record ...

Tagged with: GPS Tracker Unreasonable Search

Defendant pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The district court ruled that defendant’s prior Missouri conviction for resisting arrest qualified as a “crime of violence” and calculated defendant’s base offense level and guidelines range accordingly. ...

Tagged with: Crime Of Violence Resisting Arrest