State v. Cheatham

BARRETT, Commissioner.

An indictment charged that on March 15, 1959, Wilton Cheatham willfully, premeditatedly and of his malice aforethought, with his fists and feet, “did feloniously, kick, stomp, strike, hit, beat, and bruise” Ruth Ann McFarland upon her head and body, inflicting a mortal wound of which she died five days later. Upon a trial under this indictment a jury found Cheatham guilty of murder in the second degree and fixed his punishment at ten years’ imprisonment. The indictment appropriately charged the offense of murder in the second degree (V.A.M.S., Secs. 559.-010, 559.020),…