06/17/97 State Missouri V. Michael S. Roberts
By Supreme Court of Missouri
- Release Date: 1997-06-17
- Genre: Law
Description
A St. Louis County jury convicted Michael S. Roberts of first-degree murder and recommended that he be sentenced to death after hearing uncontroverted evidence that he beat fifty-six-year-old Mary Taylor to death with a hammer. At trial, Roberts claimed that he suffered from a mental disease or defect such that he lacked the capacity to deliberate prior to killing Ms. Taylor. On appeal, he claims, among other things, that the trial court erred in failing to submit a cautionary instruction required by section 552.030.5 and by permitting the jury to hear evidence of unrelated prior crimes. We have jurisdiction. Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 3. We affirm Roberts's sentence and conviction, as well as the trial court's decision overruling Roberts's Rule 29.15 motion.
