Willis v. State

Ray Thornton, Justice.

This case presents multiple challenges to our standards concerning preservation of claimed trial errors. After a jury trial, appellant Cleotis Willis was' convicted of battery in the first degree and sentenced to thirty-two years’ imprisonment. Appellant raises six points on appeal. Appellant does not controvert evidence that he cut the throat of the victim, Greg Williams, and kicked him, but he asserts that he acted in self-defense and that the State failed to prove the necessary mens rea of purposely inflicting injury to the victim. Appellant also seeks to raise…