Man Covicted of "Murder" . . . 40 miles away!

[TexasRifleman]

because some JBT
was speeding and driving recklessly at a distance of 40 miles....

One thing here I'm not sure any of you checked......

First off, buy or find a map.

Gasconade County MO is the a** middle of nowhere. 40 miles in that part of the country is right next door so it isn't like the trooper was just coming from that distance for lack of anything else to do. There are not likely many LEOs in that area.

Owensville, MO is the "big" city there. Google map the place for yourself and draw a 40 mile circle around town. There's nothing there.

And just don't forget....

The manhunt began after Stallman held up a convenience store, robbed a woman, and shot a Gasconade Sheriff's Deputy.

Some info on the area:

1 Sheriff, 10 Deputies in the entire county, one of them shot and out of the picture, certainly not all available to come help in the manhunt.

15,500 population for the entire county which itself is 547 square miles.
The population is likely not even that high, a good number of the homes there are summer/vacation type places along the river.

So here we have a VERY small town in need of aid, and the State Troopers provide that fill in at times like this, as they do in most states.

To say that the trooper here was out of line somehow by coming to aid this county from 40 miles away is a statement that shows a great deal of ignorance on the area and how things really work.

Here is a photo of the County Sheriff office.

Yep, big city huh. Can't imagine why this huge, massively funded department might ask for help from the State Troopers now and then.....

But I'm sure the dead troop was just bored and felt like driving fast through the armpit of Missouri 'cause he hadn't been able to use his siren in a while. Yeah, that makes more sense.

Put YOURSELF in this. YOU are 40 miles from home and you get a call from your wife. God forbid something terrible has happened. She is in a bank and it is being robbed, she's being held hostage. You are in a hurry to get home and you die in a car wreck. Are the robbers responsible for YOUR death? I bet YOUR wife would think that they were, and I bet you would want a jury to do exactly what this jury did.

 

[ceetee]

Nobody's saying that the trooper was wrong for responding to a call for assistance. Nobody's saying he was wrong for going fast. What most seem to be saying (myself included) is that it's wrong to charge the felon with his death, just because the trooper was responding to the call for assistance. Legal mumbo-jumbo aside, it just seems wrong. It seems proper to charge the criminal with multiple counts of robbery, armed robbery, murder of the Deputy, carrying of a firearm during the comission of a felony, and whatever other charges actually stem from his actions, but the death of that trooper 40 miles away was not caused by the felon, but by the trooper's bad driving.

My question is that if it's proper to charge the felon with the trooper's death, why is it not proper to charge everyone else involved in the whole chain of events leading up to the accident? That would include the dispatcher, truck driver, and 9-1-1 operator, at a minimum. In for a penny, in for a pound.

 

[ilbob]

When you are 40 miles away from a crime scene, the chances of getting there in time to be of any use are slim. Driving at a high speed for that distance on country roads seems like it is almost asking for an accident.

But that is also Monday morning quarterbacking. We should let a jury make the determination based on the evidence presented and leave it at that, short of some massive malfunction of the justice system. Thats what juries are for.

 

[ilbob]

Have any case law or examples of this? I seriously doubt that is remotely true.

Next time a friend or relative shows up bleeding at your door step and you choose to help him rather than rat him out, see what happens to you.

 

[vtoddball]

Seems to me that laws and charges like this one are a result of judges not giving enough weight to the real crimes. Prosecutors are always tacking extra charges onto these guys when their original crime should be enough to put them away in the first place. Prosecutors know a murder won't keep anyone in prison anymore so they get laws passed making murder while doing this or murder while doing that even MORE illegal. Double secret illegal. Then maybe the guy will serve some serious time.

It irritates me because classic crimes like murder, rape, theft, assault....shouldn't have to be "dressed up" to be seen as heinous.

 

[atomd]

Put YOURSELF in this. YOU are 40 miles from home and you get a call from your wife. God forbid something terrible has happened. She is in a bank and it is being robbed, she's being held hostage. You are in a hurry to get home and you die in a car wreck. Are the robbers responsible for YOUR death? I bet YOUR wife would think that they were, and I bet you would want a jury to do exactly what this jury did.

No, I don't think the robbers are responsible at all. I was breaking the speed limit and my reckless driving would be the only thing to blame. It was my decision to drive that way. If a robber held a gun to my head, made me drive recklessly and I ended up dying in an accident, that would be the robber's fault. By saying "YOUR death" and "YOUR wife" are you suggesting that some of use might think our lives are more important than that officer's life? That's what it sounds like

Sadly, the officer made a driving error. It was that error that led to his death. He could have been responding to a robbery or a cat in a tree, it doesn't change the way I see it. The only thing that really caused his death was a driving error. Unfortunately, accidents happen.

 

[Ned Flangers]

Skewed justice? Mabye. It seems to me that certain laws are put into place to insure that the criminal goes away for long time. We have all heard about murderers getting off on a technicality or only serving a few months. Between the criminal attorneys and legal loopholes, it must be really hard to exact justice where it needs to be done. In this case, I'm sure it is prosecutorial discretion to use that law, and more than likely justified. Just another way to keep the bad guys off the streets.
And, I must add, that the Missouri State Highway Patrol really helped me and my family during a time of need, and for that I am truly grateful.