State v. Roberts

ROBERTSON, Judge.

A St. Louis County jury convicted Michael S. Roberts of first-degree murder and recommended that he be sentenced to death after hearing uneontroverted evidence that he beat fifty-six-year-old Mary Taylor to death with a hammer. At trial, Roberts claimed that he suffered from a mental disease or defect such that he lacked the capacity to deliberate pri- or to killing Ms. Taylor. On appeal, he claims, among other things, that the trial court erred in failing to submit a cautionary instruction required by section 552.030.5 and by permitting the jury to hear evidence of unrelated…