In State of Missouri v. Phillip Lamont Ransburg, the defendant appealed his convictions for second-degree assault and armed criminal action arising from an incident in which he broke into his ex-girlfriend's trailer while holding a four-foot stick and charged toward her boyfriend, James Blackman, before fleeing. The Missouri Court of Appeals reversed those two convictions, entered a judgment of guilt on the lesser-included offense of third-degree assault, and remanded the case for sentencing on that count while affirming all other convictions and sentences. The court held that the evidence was insufficient to prove the stick qualified as a "dangerous instrument" under the statute, as it was not used in a manner that could cause death or serious physical injury. Without proof of a dangerous instrument, both the second-degree assault conviction and the related armed criminal action charge failed. The record did, however, support a finding that Ransburg attempted to cause physical injury to Blackman, satisfying the elements of third-degree assault.
Terry McIlvoy, an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center, filed a pro se § 1983 civil rights suit against MVE supervisor James Sharp and several other prison employees and agencies. He alleged that Sharp assaulted him during a November 2013 workplace confrontation, that officials retaliated against him for filing a grievance, failed to properly investigate, tampered with witnesses, and covered up the incident. The trial court dismissed the claims against the agencies and most individual defendants on grounds of sovereign immunity, qualified immunity, and failure to state a claim, then granted Sharp summary judgment on similar immunity grounds plus video evidence showing no excessive force or prejudice. On appeal, the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the defendants were entitled to immunity protections, that McIlvoy had not adequately pleaded or proven his claims, and that his appellate arguments were either meritless or insufficiently developed for review.
Timothy Register was convicted by a jury in Morgan County Circuit Court of first-degree sodomy, first-degree statutory rape, and two counts of first-degree child molestation based on sexual abuse of his daughter C.R. beginning when she was five; he was sentenced as a prior and persistent offender to consecutive prison terms of 25, 25, 15, and 25 years. On appeal, Register argued that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing a forensic interviewer to read aloud to the jury a written statement C.R. had given years earlier at a child advocacy center, claiming the reading improperly bolstered C.R.’s trial testimony. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions and sentences. The court held that the bolstering objection had not been preserved because it was not raised in the motion for new trial (only a hearsay objection was), and that plain-error review did not apply because the oral reading was merely cumulative of the written statement, which had already been admitted under § 491.075 and published to the jury, resulting in no manifest injustice.
Clifford Porter appealed the denial of his Rule 24.035 motion for post-conviction relief after pleading guilty to first-degree burglary and second-degree robbery in exchange for the State recommending consecutive ten-year sentences, with his counsel free to argue for less. He claimed plea counsel was ineffective by assuring him he would receive no more than concurrent ten-year terms and that he would not have pleaded guilty had he known a longer total sentence was possible. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the motion court's denial after an evidentiary hearing. The court held that Porter's claim was refuted by the plea petition and hearing transcript, in which he acknowledged understanding that the judge could impose consecutive sentences up to thirty years total with no guarantees or promises, and that any mistaken belief about sentencing did not render his plea involuntary.
Capital Finance Loans sued Andrew Read in Jackson County Circuit Court for breach of contract and a deficiency judgment after repossessing and privately selling his pickup truck following default on a retail installment contract. Read filed counterclaims, including one alleging the contract violated the Motor Vehicle Time Sales Act by omitting required information, and moved to dismiss the amended petition on grounds that Capital Finance’s presale notice failed to meet Uniform Commercial Code requirements under § 400.9-614(1). The circuit court granted the motion to dismiss, certified the partial judgment as final under Rule 74.01(b), and allowed the appeal to proceed. The Missouri Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, holding that the partial judgment did not resolve an entire “judicial unit” because Read’s mandatory counterclaim directly tied to the underlying contract remained pending.
The case involved a lawsuit by The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, as trustee, against James and Pamela Jackson for default on a $15,000 promissory note they executed in 2006. The bank sought to recover the unpaid balance plus interest, while the Jacksons denied the bank's status as holder in due course and raised affirmative defenses and counterclaims. After a bench trial, the circuit court found that the bank had standing as holder of the note, entered judgment for the bank in the amount of $15,460.40, and rejected the Jacksons' defenses and counterclaims. On appeal, the Missouri Court of Appeals dismissed the case because the Jacksons, proceeding pro se, failed to file a transcript of the trial proceedings, leaving the appellate court unable to review any of the factual or evidentiary claims raised in the eight points on appeal.