Thursday, May 23, 2013

State v. Larson case brief

State v. Larson case brief
941 S.W.2d 847

CASE SYNOPSIS: Defendant appealed an order of the Circuit Court of Gentry County (Missouri), which entered a judgment convicting him of 50 counts of misdemeanor animal abuse in violation of Mo. Rev. Stat. § 578.012 (1994) and 50 counts of misdemeanor failure to dispose of dead animals in violation of Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 269.020 and 269.220 (1994).

FACTS: Defendant appealed his convictions for misdemeanor animal abuse and misdemeanor failure to dispose of dead animals. He argued that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a bill of particulars as to the charges of animal abuse, determining that the search warrant authorizing the search of his property was valid, failing to permit him to argue that adverse news coverage was caused by a biased reporter, permitting introduction of a report of a the sheriff's investigation as a business record exception to the hearsay rule, and failing to instruct the jury to consider whether he was not guilty of misdemeanor failure to dispose because he was suffering from a mental defect as contemplated by Mo. Rev. Stat. § 552.030 (1994). The court held that (1) The trial court erred in denying his motion for a bill of particulars as to the charges of animal abuse because the information did not sufficiently apprise defendant of which pig he was charged with abusing, (2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in precluding defendant from arguing that adverse media coverage was due to a biased reporter, and (3) the evidence did not support defendant's claim of a mental disease or defect.

CONCLUSION: The court reversed defendant's conviction for misdemeanor animal abuse and remanded the case for a new trial. The court affirmed defendant's conviction for misdemeanor failure to dispose of dead animals.

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