State v. Byers

CARL R. GAERTNER, Presiding Judge.

Defendant Virgil Byers was charged by information with first degree sexual abuse, a felony, and third degree assault, a misdemeanor. A jury convicted him on both counts, but because the trial court found he was a prior offender within the meaning of § 558.016, RSMo.Cum.Supp.1984, the trial court, and not the jury, imposed sentence. Defendant appeals raising two points.

Defendant asserts his conviction for sexual abuse cannot stand because no one actually identified him as the man who “grabbed” the seven-year-old victim’s genitals and buttocks. The assertion is…