State Missouri v. Michael Gayle Gilley

Ann K. Covington, Judge Michael Gayle Gilley timely filed a joint application for change of Judge and change of venue in the Circuit Court of Cole County after the state charged him with driving while intoxicated, § 577.010, RSMo 1986, and driving while license was revoked, § 302.321, RSMo 1986. 1 The trial court sentenced Gilley to six months on each count with the sentences to be served concurrently. Gilley commenced an appeal in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, from which the case was transferred to this Court, prior to opinion, on the basis of constitutional challenges to § 508.355. The judgment is affirmed. In counties with populations of 75,000 or fewer inhabitants, defendants are entitled to a change of venue upon the filing of written application. Rule 32.03. These defendants need not allege or prove any reason for the change. Id. Section 508.355 provides an exception to Rule 32.03: a defendant with a case filed in a county with department of corrections and human resources facilities with a total average yearly inmate population in excess of two thousand persons shall show, to obtain a change of venue, either that the inhabitants of the county are prejudiced against him or that the state has an undue influence over the inhabitants of the county. § 508.355.2. Although not mentioned in § 508.355, Cole County, having a general population of fewer than seventy-five thousand, is presently the only county in Missouri with a total average yearly inmate population in excess of two thousand persons.