State v. Johnson

CRIST, Presiding Judge.

As their children watched, defendant stabbed his ex-wife five times in the front yard of her apartment. One wound severed her aorta, causing her death. A jury convicted defendant of capital murder, recommending life imprisonment without eligibility for probation or parole for fifty years. The trial court sentenced accordingly and defendant appeals. We affirm.

Defendant claims plain error taints his conviction in that the verdict directing instructions for capital murder, murder in the second degree, and manslaughter did not require the jury to find defendant possessed of…