State v. Sykes

STORCKMAN, Presiding Judge.

The defendant has appealed from a conviction of murder in the first degree. The sentence assessed by the jury was life imprisonment. No brief has been filed by the defendant and the case is before us on the transcript of the record and the state’s brief.

In this situation our review extends to the assignments of error properly preserved in the motion for new trial and to the essential portions of the record. S.Ct. Rules 27.20 and 28.02, V.A.M.R.; State v. Slicker, Mo., 342 S.W.2d 946, 947 [1]. The defendant’s first contention is that the trial court erred in…