Lee Daniel Russell v. State Missouri

The trial court, upon motion of the state and absent an evidentiary hearing, dismissed Lee Daniel Russell's Rule 27.26 motion to vacate a five year sentence entered upon a plea of guilty to a charge of auto theft. Russell timely appealed. Of three points raised by Russell on appeal, the first is deemed to be the principal and dispositive point - that the trial court erred in dismissing his Rule 27.26 motion without affording him an opportunity to present evidence on the principal ground that the trial court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter of the offense to which he pled guilty. Certain statutory provisions, as well as a synopsis of certain basic allegations contained in the Rule 27.26 motion, need to be initially set forth in order to put this principal and dispositive point in proper perspective.