Kansas City man to receive new trial in killing of woman

A Kansas City man serving a life sentence for second-degree murder should receive a new trial, a Missouri appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A jury convicted Christopher M. Sanders, 38, of second-degree murder in the November 2011 death of Sherilyn Hill two years earlier at the Royale Inn, 600 Paseo. A prosecutor argued that Sanders savagely beat and strangled Hill during a confused night of drinking, crack smoking and fighting.

Authorities recovered Hill’s body in December 2011, about two weeks after her death, wrapped in a sheet and tucked into the bottom of a motel stairwell.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals found that jurors should have been allowed to consider whether Sanders was guilty of the lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter.

Mark Morris, mmorris@kcstar.com

This story was originally published February 3, 2015 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Kansas City man to receive new trial in killing of woman."