§ 135.345 Legal effect of plea of no contest

If you plead no contest to a criminal charge, it counts the same as being convicted of that crime. The court will treat your case exactly like you pleaded guilty or were found guilty at trial.

This matters because a no contest plea doesn't let you avoid having a criminal record. You still end up with a conviction on the charge, even though you didn't admit guilt out loud. The main difference between a no contest plea and a guilty plea shows up outside the criminal case, like in a civil lawsuit, where a no contest plea usually can't be used against you to prove you did what you're accused of. But as far as the criminal case goes, the result is the same: you're convicted.