State of Missouri v. Gail L. Daws

Summary

The Supreme Court of Missouri held that a prior guilty plea to failure to yield to an emergency vehicle did not bar a subsequent prosecution for felony resisting arrest under the Double Jeopardy Clause. Applying the Blockburger same-elements test, the court concluded that failure to yield was not a lesser-included offense of resisting arrest because each offense contained elements not required by the other. The court reversed the dismissal of the resisting arrest charge and remanded the case.

Holdings

1. Failure to yield to an emergency vehicle under section 304.022 is not a lesser-included offense of resisting arrest under section 575.150 because each offense contains elements the other does not.
2. The statutory presumption that a person is fleeing a vehicle stop after seeing emergency lights or hearing an audible signal is an evidentiary rule, not an element of resisting arrest, and therefore does not establish a double-jeopardy bar.

Questions Presented

1. Whether failure to yield to an emergency vehicle under section 304.022 is a lesser-included offense of resisting arrest under section 575.150.
2. Whether the Double Jeopardy Clause barred the State from prosecuting Daws for resisting arrest after her guilty plea to failure to yield.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded