Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District / Mar 28, 2023
STATE OF MISSOURI, Plaintiff-Respondent v. JOHN A. HAYES, Defendant-Appellant
John A. Hayes appealed his convictions for first-degree statutory rape and sodomy, arguing that the verdict-directing instructions violated his right to a unanimous jury verdict in a "multiple-acts" case. Hayes contended the instructions failed to identify specific incidents the jury needed to agree upon. The appellate court affirmed the convictions, denying plain-error review because the case did not present distinct criminal acts as contemplated by precedent, and the defense strategy at trial was to challenge the victim's credibility rather than differentiate between acts.