Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District / Sep 23, 2025
STATE OF MISSOURI, Plaintiff-Respondent v. DEBORAH K. LUNDSTROM, Defendant-Appellant
Deborah K. Lundstrom was convicted of multiple charges, including first-degree endangering the welfare of a child resulting in death and involuntary manslaughter, after a 9-month-old child died from asphyxiation in a car seat while left unsupervised at her unlicensed daycare. On appeal, Lundstrom challenged the sufficiency of the evidence for the death-related charges and argued the trial court plainly erred in a jury instruction. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, affirmed all convictions, finding sufficient evidence for both charges and no plain error in the jury instruction, as the terms "caused" and "results in" were deemed to have no meaningful difference in this context.