May 11, 2001

News Release

On Friday, May 11, 2001, at the Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau, Robert Deniro Moore, 19, pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and possession of stolen property in connection with the shooting death of Jesus Sides, 19, at Indian Park in Cape Girardeau on October 29, 2000. Following a plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense, Circuit Judge John W. Grimm sentenced Moore to a total of 10 years in prison. Moore received 7 years on the involuntary manslaughter charge and 3 years on the possession of stolen property charge, to run consecutively.

In pleading guilty, Moore admitted that he shot Jesus Sides at Indian Park on October 19, 2000. He admitted firing 6 shots from a .38 caliber revolver at Solomon Sides, and accidently hitting Jesus Sides with one of the shots. As a part of his plea, Moore admitted that he had been reckless in firing 6 shots across a public park. He also admitted the gun he used was a stolen gun, and that he had known it was stolen while possessing it.

During the guilty plea process, Judge Grimm established that Moore was pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter under a legal theory of "imperfect self-defense," meaning that while Moore may have believed he was acting in self-defense at the time of the shooting, he was now admitting that by firing 6 shots across a public park he was "disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that a bystander could be killed" and that his conduct "was a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would have used in the situation."

After the plea, Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle explained the law of "imperfect self-defense."

"Under the law of self-defense, a person is allowed to use a reasonable amount of force, even deadly force, to protect himself or another person from death or serious physical injury. ‘Imperfect self-defense’ occurs when a person may have been justified initially in using self-defense but he is reckless in his use of that deadly force."

Swingle described what happened at Indian Park on October 19, 2000.

"Robert Deniro Moore admitted that he saw a fight break out between Solomon Sides, 18, and a 16-year-old. Moore admitted that as the fight was going on, he went to a portable toilet where he had hidden a stolen gun and watched the fight from a vent in the toilet."

"As Solomon Sides was fighting the 16-year-old, Solomon saw the 16-year-old hand a gun to another 16-year-old, who then pointed it at him and made a threat. Solomon Sides, who was unarmed, ran to his brother Jesus, and got a gun from him. He then fired one shot at the second 16-year-old, who was pointing a gun at him."

"Robert Deniro Moore saw Solomon Sides pointing the gun at the 16-year-old and opened fire from the portable toilet, firing all 6 shots of the .38 revolver across Indian Park at Solomon Sides. One of the shots struck Jesus Sides, who was sitting on his bicycle on the street behind Solomon. The park was crowded with people at the time."

"Ballistics tests proved that one of the bullets fired by Robert Deniro Moore killed Jesus Sides."

"Police also confirmed that the gun turned over to them that same day by Solomon Sides had only been fired one time, and still had four live rounds in its chamber, proving that he had only fired one shot."

The juvenile who Solomon Sides fired at was charged with possession of a stolen weapon in juvenile court, where his case was adjudicated.

Had Jesus Sides lived, he would have faced charges of carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a stolen weapon.

Swingle said he did not plan to charge Solomon Sides with a crime for firing the one shot at the 16-year-old juvenile. "I believe that under Missouri law Solomon Sides reasonably felt his life was in danger and that he was firing the one shot he fired in self-defense. Although many witnesses thought they saw him firing more than one shot, the physical evidence confirms that he actually fired only once, while people were hearing several shots being fired by Robert Deniro Moore, who was concealed in the portable toilet."