State v. Pond

DUANE BENTON, Judge.

The State charged Casey N. Pond with statutory sodomy in the first degree. At trial, the circuit court refused to instruct on the lesser offense of child molestation in the first degree. Pond was sentenced, as a prior offender, to 15 years imprisonment. He asserts error in not instructing on the lesser offense, and in finding him a prior offender. After opinion by the Court of Appeals, this Court granted transfer. Mo. Const, art. V, sec. 10. Reversed and remanded.

The parties do not dispute that on the facts here, child molestation in the first degree is a lesser offense of…