State v. Pike

SMITH, Presiding Judge.

Defendant appeals from his conviction for second degree murder by a jury and sentence of 30 years in accord with the verdict.

Defendant was sixteen years of age at the time of the offense. The victim was an eighteen year old girl who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. Defendant, in his testimony at trial, admitted beating the victim to death but testified that he did so while under threat of death by an armed unknown man who ordered him to do so. Substantial evidence was adduced to support a defense of mental disease or defect excluding responsibility.

Defendant…