State v. Oliver

TITUS, Judge.

An indictment filed in the Circuit Court of Franklin County charged defendant with murder in the first degree. The cause reached our bailiwick upon a change of venue to Phelps County where a jury found defendant guilty of murder in the second degree and assessed his punishment at 25 years’ imprisonment. He appealed. We reverse and remand.

There was no direct testimony of eyewitnesses connecting defendant with the shooting of his estranged wife. Although most of the evidence against defendant may be classified as circumstantial, we have not been called upon to test the sufficiency…