Muse v. Commonwealth

Kenneth Wayne Muse appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of willful murder and fixing his punishment at life imprisonment. Muse claims that the court committed reversible error in that it failed to instruct the jury on assault in the first degree. Secondly, he asserts that the court erred to his substantial prejudice when it failed to conduct a hearing to determine his capacity to stand trial.

Muse, age 24, had been keeping steady company with Austin Saunders’ daughter, Linda, age 16, for a period of some sixteen months. After Linda obtained a driver’s license,…