Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District / Jun 28, 2019
State of Missouri vs. Dustin Demont Brown
Dustin Demont Brown appealed his conviction for third-degree assault, arguing the trial court erred by allowing the State to read a statute and appellate cases on resisting arrest during closing arguments. The appellate court agreed that the trial court abused its discretion by permitting the State to instruct the jury on the law using external sources. However, the court affirmed Brown's conviction, finding that this error did not prejudice the assault charge because the resisting arrest and assault charges were factually distinct and had different verdict directors.