State v. Cooley

HIGGINS, Commissioner.

An indictment charged that on July 4, 1963, Melvin Cooley and Robert Cooley feloniously, -willfully, premeditatedly, on purpose, and of their malice aforethought, with a knife “did strike, cut, stab, and wound” Odell Davis, inflicting a mortal wound from which he died on September 1, 1963. Melvin Cooley was granted severance and, upon trial, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and assessed his punishment at ten years’ imprisonment. Sections 559.070 and 559.140 RSMo.1959, V.A.M.S. The ensuing judgment and sentence commuted the punishment to a term of seven years.…