A colon indicates a list
Ransom 22 [Robin Ransom, American lawyer who serves as a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, “STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Shawn W. YOUNT, Appellant.”, No. SC 99317., Supreme Court of Missouri, en banc, Opinion issued April 5, 2022, //zrubin]
Yet the legislature's use and placement of the colon are critical to assessing the statute's plain meaning and informs the meaning attributed to "and" in this statute. The grammatical structure of the statute using a colon after "one who" indicates a list from which the legislature intended to identify two categories of defendants who may qualify as dangerous offenders: (1) offenders whose present offense is a dangerous offense, and (2) offenders whose prior offense was a dangerous offense. Hence, the state has two options from which to choose when pleading and proving dangerous offenders under the statute.