State of Missouri v. Tiffany Mills

Summary

The Court affirmed Mills’s convictions and concurrent three-year sentences, rejecting her challenges to court-imposed punishment, the exclusion of additional evidence concerning the victim’s violent behavior, and the absence of counsel at an early appearance. Mills knowingly waived her statutory right to jury sentencing, the excluded evidence was within the circuit court’s discretion to limit as legally irrelevant and prejudicial, and neither the initial appearance nor consideration of pretrial-release conditions was a critical stage requiring counsel. The Court also found no outcome-determinative prejudice under plain-error review.