State v. Ussery

[245]

Ussery was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment.

While Ussery was employed as a janitor at a pool hall known as Whitey’s Recreation Parlor in Springfield, he secretly had a duplicate key made for the entrance door which opens from the sidewalk into a stairway which leads upstairs to the pool room. Several days later, ■after midnight when the place was closed, he entered by means of his duplicate key. He tried to lock the door after he was inside but was unable to do so. He went upstairs into the pool room, took a screwdriver from a drawer in a…