The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction in the case of Sony Uk.
Uk had appealed his murder conviction from 2018, saying district court should have given the jury instructions on voluntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense on a first-degree murder charge. He also said the lower court’s instruction on premeditation was not sufficient.
The Supreme Court disagreed. It said the manslaughter instruction would have been “factually inappropriate” because there was no “legally sufficient provocation.” It also said district court did not make any mistakes on its premeditation instructions.
Uk, 33, was convicted of first-degree murder after shooting his girlfriend, Mahogany Brooks, to death at Brooks’ apartment just over three years ago. He’s not eligible for parole until March 2067.
