State v. Johnson

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Owsley, J.:

Defendant Ivester Johnson, Jr., appeals from a conviction by a jury of murder in the first degree. (K. S. A. 21-3401.) The victim was a three-month-old girl, Marchelle Johnson. It was undisputed that the child was not fathered by defendant, but he had married the child’s mother before Marchelle was born and had signed her birth certificate as the father. Defendant knew he was not the child’s father before the marriage was consummated.

The exact events leading up to the death of the child are not known and the state’s case rests entirely on…