State v. Gantt

SOMERVILLE, Chief Judge.

A jury found defendant guilty of raping an eight year old female (Section 566.030.3, RSMo Supp.1982), a class B felony, and assessed the maximum punishment, i.e., fifteen years confinement in the Missouri Department of Corrections (Section 558.011, RSMo Supp.1982). After an unavailing motion for new trial, judgment was rendered and sentence pronounced accordingly.

Seldom has this court encountered a record on appeal so replete with unpreserved error that appellate review, if had, must fall almost entirely under the aegis of Rule 29.12(b), the “plain error” rule. This…