Van Ralston v. State

The court granted movant’s Rule 24.035 motion and vacated his conviction and sentence. The State appeals; we reverse.

Movant pleaded guilty to two counts of sodomy, § 566.060, RSMo 1986, committed on a ten-year-old boy. He was originally charged with four counts of sodomy and one count of first-degree sexual abuse involving two brothers. Movant was charged as a persistent sexual offender under § 558.018, RSMo 1986, because he had pleaded guilty in 1983 to a sodomy charge, also involving a young boy.1 If found guilty by a jury, movant thus faced mandatory consecutive sentences of 30 years each…