In the last six months of 2018, the Missouri Supreme Court appeared to be gearing up for some big decisions. So far in 2019, that behind-the-scenes work is bearing fruit. As of the court’s handdown on June 25, the high court ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law employment Major Opinions 2019 Missouri Supreme Court tort law Workers' compensation

Where a defendant in a drug and firearm case challenged the denial of a motion to suppress, arguing that a search warrant did not authorize the search of the garden, the trial court properly found that the garden was located ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law curtilage Scope Of Warrant Search

  Where a defendant argued that his counsel was ineffective for failing to object to certain jury instructions, the amended Rule 29.15 motion was filed four days after it was required to be filed, so the motion was untimely, and ...

Tagged with: Abandonment Criminal Law effectiveness of counsel Post-Conviction Relief

Where the state challenged the grant of a petition for expungement for respondent’s 2010 conviction for peace disturbance, arguing that the time frame that should be considered is the three years following the completion of the sentence for each conviction ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Expungement Time Period

Where a defendant in a domestic-assault case argued that the trial court erred in failing to intervene when a witness offered allegedly improper character and propensity testimony when the witness said he assumed the defendant “had a court date somewhere,” ...

Tagged with: Character Evidence Criminal Law Propensity Evidence Uninvited Reference

Defendant was charged with abuse of a child resulting in death. Pre-trial, defense counsel moved to exclude the victim’s autopsy results. The trial court ruled that the autopsy need not have been performed by a certified child death pathologist and ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Felony Murder ineffective assistance of counsel Motion to Set Aside Conviction

Where a defendant, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, argued that the district court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate his criminal prosecution, the judgment is affirmed because the defendant’s claim that the payment of income tax is voluntary lacked merit. Judgment ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law jurisdiction Tax Evasion

Where a defendant challenged the denial of supervised release, the district court properly considered the defendant’s own statement that he didn’t want to be set free as well as his history of noncompliance, so the judgment is affirmed Judgment is ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Defendant’s Statement Supervised Release

Where a defendant, who pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and conspiracy in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, challenged the district court’s application of a cross-reference in the advisory sentencing guidelines, the firearm was properly “cited in the ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law plea agreement sentencing

Defendant pleaded guilty to production of child pornography, pursuant to a plea agreement that contained an appeal waiver. On appeal, defendant challenged the reasonableness of his sentence. Where defendant’s appellate issues fell within the scope of the appeal waiver in ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver Challenge to Reasonableness of Sentence Criminal Law Production of Child Pornography

Defendant appealed the denial of his suppression motion and conviction for possession of more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, after officers conducted a canine sniff during a welfare-check traffic stop of defendant’s truck. Defendant challenged the sufficiency of evidence that ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Motion to Suppress Evidence Possession of Methamphetamine Sufficiency Of Evidence