KENNETT — A jury simultaneously found a Stoddard County man both guilty and not guilty of murder due to a clerical error during a 2023 trial, according to a judgment entered Wednesday with Dunklin County courts.
The error was not immediately discovered by the prosecution or defense until nearly a year later, and Melvin D. Anderson will now receive a new trial.
In the judgment, Judge Mark Preyer noted that the matter has “traveled a difficult, unexpected, and tragically unique road.” The Stoddard County case was adjudicated in a Dunklin County court on a change of venue.
Throughout the course of the 2023 trial, amended information was filed two different times with disparities in the number of counts against Anderson, states to the new judgment. As a result of this and other circumstances noted by Anderson’s defense counsel, the decision has been made for Anderson to receive a new trial.
As a result of the confusion created by the amended information, the Preyer’s judgment said upon rendering the verdict two counts had been addressed by the court, but four verdict forms were provided in regard to those two counts, “one finding the defendant guilty on each of the two counts and one finding the defendant not guilty on each of the two counts.”
Each juror — having been polled upon Anderson’s request — admitted that the verdicts entered into court record were, in fact, the verdicts of the jury. As a result, the jury submitted a verdict that found Anderson simultaneously guilty and not guilty on one count of murder in the first degree and one count of armed criminal action. The jury then was dismissed.
Preyer further noted, “In the motion for New Trial, the Defendant asserts error that the state had played a video in such a manner that it could not be replayed to the jury. The jury had requested a review of the video during their deliberations, but because the circumstances surrounding the video presentation, this was not possible. Such error alone provides sufficient reason to grant a new trial if that were necessary. However, as the issue of inconsistent verdicts, as hereinafter addressed, is controlling, that issue of video presentation is not determined.”
Preyer said there is precedent for his decision to grant a new trial. According to the judgment, two different cases — one in 1986 and the other in 1997 — saw jurors return inconsistent or ambiguous verdicts.
In Anderson’s case, neither the prosecution nor the defense noticed the clerical error with the conflicting verdicts within the typically allotted amount of time. The issue was further complicated due to the fact that the judge who heard the case, Edward W. Reeves, died before he could rule on the motion for a new trial.
Anderson was charged with a Class A felony of first-degree murder and a classified felony of armed criminal action in connection with the shooting death of Tristan Davis of Advance in 2019. He was also charged with two Class A felonies of second-degree murder (death resulting from the perpetration of second-degree domestic assault, and death resulting from the perpetration of first-degree kidnapping) and two armed criminal action charges.
Anderson was initially convicted almost one year ago in April 2023, and has been housed in the Dunklin County Jail since then. There are no scheduled hearings or trials for the matter at this time.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect the trial and subsequent filings were handled in Dunklin County, on a change of venue.