Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District / Date unavailable
STATE OF MISSOURI, Plaintiff-Respondent v. PHILIP A. COOPER, Defendant-Appellant
Philip A. Cooper appealed his convictions for voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence, and abandonment of a corpse following a jury trial. Cooper argued the trial court erred by failing to dismiss the information based on speedy trial rights, admitting his extrajudicial confessions, and allowing improper victim impact testimony during sentencing. The Southern District of Missouri affirmed the convictions, finding Cooper failed to preserve his speedy trial claims, the State sufficiently established corpus delicti for the confessions, and no plain error occurred regarding the victim impact testimony.