842 S.W. 2d 98 (Mo. banc 1992)

Death sentence commuted at request of Pope. Darrell Mease was scheduled to be executed on the day Pope John Paul the second arrived in Missouri in 1999 for a 31-hour visit. Mease faced the death penalty because of the murders of three people in southwest Missouri. His execution was delayed until after the Pope had gone home. It never happened. The Pope asked Carnahan to show mercy to Mease. A few days later, Carnahan commuted Mease’s sentence to life without parole. [Missourinet story]

Case Facts: During 1987 Darrell Mease became acquainted with Lloyd Lawrence and participated in the manufacture and sales of methamphetamine. Lawrence told Mease that he would teach him how to manufacture the drug. When this did not occur the relationship between the two men became strained. In late 1987 Lawrence gave Mease some pills which made him sick. Fearing for his safety Mease and his girlfriend, Mary Epps, left the Taney County, Missouri area in December 1987. Before leaving Mease took four pounds of crank and four bottles of a chemical used in the manufacturing process from Lawrence. He placed the goods in a backpack and hid them in the Reed Springs, Missouri area.

Mease and Epps then traveLed across country until they returned to Missouri in May 1 988. Mease had learned in a telephone conversation with his mother that Lawrence was going to kill him. MSse decided he needed to return to Missouri in order to settle his differences with Lawrence.

Mease built a concealed position for himself near the road that led to the Lawrence residence. At about noon on May 15, 1988 Mease observed Lloyd, his wife Frankie and their grandson Willie Lawrence riding four wheeled all terrain vehicles. Willie passed Mease who was hiding in a nearby wooded area. As Lloyd and Frankie Lawrence passed Mease he fired twice with a shotgun hitting Lloyd and Frankie. Mease then shot Lloyd a second time with the shotgun. Mease then came out of his hiding spot. Willie Lawrence then turned around and Mease shot Willie Lawrence with the shotgun. Mease then shot each member of the Lawrence family in the head with the shotgun. Mease took Lloyd’s wallet, a watch and two rings. He removed $600 from the wallet and hid it under a nearby log.

Mease then made his escape with Mary Epps and they left Missouri traveling to various states across the country. In January 1989 Mease was arrested in Arizona on two outstanding felony nonsupport warrants from Stone County, Missouri and an Unlawful Use of a Weapons warrant from Taney County, Missouri. He was returned to Missouri where he confessed to the murders of the Lawrences.

Missouri Supreme Court Case Number SC82743

Bobby Joe Mayes resentenced to life in prison. State of Missouri, ex rel. Bobby Joe Mayes v. The Honorable John D. Wiggins – Case Number: SC85657 (Hand down Date: 12/07/2004)

Bobby Jo Mayes was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action. The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed his convictions on direct appeal but reversed his original sentence and remanded for a retrial of his penalty phase. State v. Mayes, 63 S.W.3d 615 (Mo. banc 2001). Following retrial, the jury found the presence of aggravating circumstances in connection with the murders but could not agree on punishment. The court discharged the jury, overruled Mayes’ motion for a life sentence and ordered another penalty phase trial. The Missouri Supreme Court held the trial court is prohibited from taking any further action than to sentence Mayes to life in prison.

Audio: Oral argument on appeal to Missouri Supreme Court (11/10/04)
Audio: Oral argument on appeal to Missouri Supreme Court (9/6/01)
Text: Missouri Supreme Court Opinion: SC82743 (Handdown Date: 12/18/01)

Case Facts: At the time of the murder on August 10, 1998, Bobby Joe Mayes was married to Sondra, and lived with her and his 14-year-old stepdaughter, Amanda, in Houston, Missouri. Mayes was scheduled to go to trial the next day, August 11, for committing statutory sodomy on his two minor daughters from a previous relationship. He wanted Sondra and Amanda to testify for him, and they had been endorsed as defense witnesses.

Evidence was presented that the couple was having financial and marital difficulties. Sondra had told Mayes that she would not testify for him unless he signed a document that purported to waive his right to contest Sondra’s ability to unilaterally convey the couple’s marital real property. On August 6, 1998, just four days before the murder, Mayes talked briefly with an acquaintance, Michael James, about his financial difficulties and indicated that he did not want to return home when his wife was there because they might get into a conflict. Mayes also unsuccessfully sought Mr. James’ help to buy a gun, allegedly to rob another man.

The next day, August 7, 1998, Mayes signed the waiver of marital rights that Sondra had requested in return for her promise to testify. The State presented evidence that Sondra went to work at 8 a.m. on August 10, 1998, as usual. Sondra told her co-worker and friend, Cora Wade, that even though Defendant had signed the waiver “she had not been able to work up the courage to tell him that she still wasn’t going to testify for him.” Although Cora and Sondra planned to talk more in the afternoon, Sondra went home during her lunch break, as she did on most days, but never returned to work.

Cora called Sondra’s house at about 1:15 p.m., when she realized Sondra had not yet returned to work, but no one answered. According to Mr. Noakes, about 45 minutes later Duane Sutton, Sondra’s father, came by the house and knocked on the door. Mr. Sutton testified that he called through the window for Sondra, but no one answered.

Around 4:20 p.m., Mr. Noakes saw Mayes return home. Shortly thereafter Defendant called 911. When asked what was wrong, he said, “I don’t know. I just come home and, I don’t know. You just need to send somebody over here,” and that someone was “hurt” and was not breathing. He refused to check for a pulse, stating, “I’m not going in there,” but agreed not to touch anything and to flag down the ambulance.

Officer Campbell arrived to find Mayes pacing back and forth in the driveway and rubbing his hands with a blue shop cloth. When asked what was wrong, Defendant responded he did not know. The officer looked around the house and discovered Sondra’s body in the master bedroom. When the next officer to arrive asked Mayes what was going on, he threw up his arms and shouted, “I have an alibi, I have an alibi. I’ve been fishing for the last three and a half hours.” He was perspiring and “fidgety” and continued to wipe and scrub his hands with the blue shop cloth. When Chief of Police Kirkman arrived, Mayes said he had last seen his wife at 7:00 a.m., that he had been fishing at “Flat Rock” or “White Rock,” and that he talked to her on the telephone briefly when he returned home to make a sandwich before returning to fish at either “Flat” or “Duke.” Still massaging his hands, Mayes did not ask about his wife or even mention Amanda. Chief Kirkman observed ligature marks on the back of his hands.

After investigating Sondra’s murder for some time, police learned that Amanda should have been home but had not been seen. Her partially clothed body was found on the floor next to her bed, with a blue comforter draped across the front of her body and with a very pronounced ligature mark on her neck. Chief Kirkman advised Mayes of his Miranda rights and placed him under arrest. Police took him to the Texas County jail, where he consented to a search of his person and the seizure of his clothing. By early evening, Fred Martin, Mayes attorney in his pending trial, met with him briefly. Later, a doctor found a laceration on Defendant’s right hand and constriction injuries on the backs of both hands consistent with the ligature mark on Amanda’s neck.

9/30/03 Reversed and Remanded – Life without Parole – PCC #1036512

Missouri Supreme Court Opinion: SC84515

Deandra Buchanan lived in a house with his stepfather, aunt and girlfriend – the mother of his two children. On November 7, 2000, he and his stepfather, aunt, girlfriend and others celebrated the fact that the aunt had obtained an apartment to which she would soon move. At some point during the celebration, Buchanan concluded that others were trying to kill him or put him in jail. He threatened those present at the celebration and eventually shot to death his stepfather, aunt and girlfriend and wounded a person who had offered him a ride after the shootings.

Missouri Supreme Court Case Number: SC81666

9/30/03 Reversed and Remanded  – Life without Parole – PCC #1036512

2/19/02 – (Poplar Bluff) A judge has reinstated the death penalty for former Poplar Bluff resident Cecil Barriner. He’s been convicted a second time of murdering a woman and her granddaughter in Tallapoosa five years ago. The judge took the action after a jury found Barriner guilty in his second trial. Barriner got a second trial because the state supreme court ruled improper evidence had been allowed in his first trial.

12/27/2000 – (Jefferson City) The conviction and death sentence of Cecil Barriner was over-turned by the Missouri Supreme Court and a new trial ordered. The Supreme Court ruled that the judge in the trial should not have admitted evidence referring to conduct for which Barriner was never charged.

Audio: Oral arguments on appeal to Missouri Supreme Court
Text: Missouri Supreme Court Opinion

Case Facts: In December 1996, Barriner began to fear that he had failed a urinalysis test for the presence of controlled substances. Barriner was concerned that his probation would be revoked. Resolving to leave his residence in Poplar Bluff, Barriner planned to travel to the Tallapoosa, Missouri, residence of nineteen year old Candy Sisk and Irene Sisk, Candy’s seventy-four year old grandmother, to obtain money from them. Barriner had been in a relationship with Candy Sisk’s mother, Shirley Niswonger, from 1993 until 1996, and during that time had become acquainted with Candy. Barriner had accompanied Niswonger on at least two occasions when she traveled to the Sisks’ house to borrow money. Barriner believed that the Sisks were financially well-to-do.

Late in the afternoon of December 15, 1996, Barriner visited Daniel and Samantha Simmons, friends who lived only a few miles from the Sisk residence. Barriner told Samantha Simmons that he was going to Tallapoosa to collect some money and drove away in the white Ford Taurus automobile he was using for transportation. He returned shortly thereafter, stating that no one had been home. Daniel and Samantha Simmons then accompanied Barriner to Tallapoosa in the Ford Taurus, where Barriner passed by the Sisk house three times. During the drive, Barriner said that “the girl was going to pay him some money” and pointed to a note that he had left on the Sisks’ door. Samantha Simmons noticed that during the drive Barriner held and played with a purple Crown Royal bag that contained something that she could not see.

On December 16, at approximately 8:45 a.m., Candy telephoned her aunt, Debbie Dubois, and reported that a man had been to the house a short time before. Candy told Dubois that the man had told Irene that he had “a Christmas gift for Candy from her mother in jail.” Candy told Dubois that her grandmother said that the man had acted strangely, and that the same man had been in Tallapoosa the day before asking for directions to the Sisk residence. Candy reported that she had not seen the man herself, but had observed the man’s car, which was a white Ford Taurus. Dubois attempted to telephone a relative to ask him to check on Irene and Candy but was unable to reach him. Dubois then called Candy, told her she had failed to reach the relative, and instructed Candy to call her again if the man returned.

Several minutes after 9:00 that morning, a bank teller at a bank in nearby Risco attended to a man driving a white Ford Taurus. The teller saw Candy riding in the passenger seat, dressed in a nightgown and wrapped in a blanket. The teller saw another person in the rear seat. The driver gave the teller a check in the amount of one thousand dollars, signed by Candy and to be drawn on her account. After having Candy sign the required cash receipt, the teller gave the man one thousand dollars in cash, with one hundred dollars in twenty dollar bills, as the driver requested.

At approximately 10:45 that morning, Dubois attempted at least twice to telephone Candy and Irene at the Sisk residence. The telephone rang repeatedly, but no one answered. Dubois was concerned because one telephone line had an answering machine and because Candy, who had undergone back surgery four days before, was not supposed to leave the house for six weeks. Dubois drove to the Sisk house. There she found Candy and Irene dead. She tried to call the police, but, upon finding that the telephones in the house were missing, she drove to see a relative, who notified the authorities.

Candy’s body was on the bed in her bedroom. Her hands were bound in front of her with rope. She was unclothed below the waist. A pair of sweatpants and a pair of panties were on the floor nearby. Her neck had been slashed six to eight times. A knife protruded from her chest. An autopsy revealed that Candy bled to death from the neck slashes, and that the knife was thrust into her chest after she died. Several bite marks were identified on her body.

Irene’s body was on the floor of her bedroom next to the bed. She had been hog-tied, her wrists and ankles bound together with the same length of rope. An autopsy revealed that seventeen superficial stab wounds in a localized area on her left chest, five of which penetrated the chest cavity and lung, were inflicted fifteen to forty-five minutes before she died. Three deep slashes to her throat caused her death.

On December 18, two days after the bodies of Irene and Candy were discovered, Lieutenant Steven Hinesly of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and Deputy Sheriff Scott Johnston of Butler County contacted Barriner at his brother’s home. Barriner agreed to accompany the officers to troop headquarters in Poplar Bluff to discuss the homicide. Barriner denied knowing that the Sisks had been murdered and denied killing them. Barriner claimed to have made trips to Cape Girardeau and two other towns on the morning of the murders to do some Christmas shopping. When Lieutenant Hinesly professed skepticism that Barriner could have traveled so far so quickly, Barriner changed his story; he then claimed that he was using methamphetamine at the home of Kevin Dennis when the murders were committed.

939 S.W.2d 361 (Mo.banc 1997)

Reversed and Remanded – Resentenced 6-17-03 – Life without Parole – SCCC #990080

The evidence at trial, State v. Storey, 901 S.W.2d 886, 891 (Mo. banc 1995), reveals the following:

Case Facts:  On January 20, 1988, Ronald Chester, a paraplegic, picked up Maria Evans in his modified Lincoln to help him run some errands. Chester’s wheelchair was in the front passenger seat, and Evans sat in back. Alter completing the errands, Chester drove to the area of Sarah and Hodiamont streets in St. Louis, where he spoke with Joseph Whitfield.

Whitfield was accompanied by a young girl whom he identified as his daughter. An unidentified woman approached Chester’s car, claimed to be the young girl’s mother, and asked Chester to take Whitfield and the girl home. When Chester agreed to do so, Whitfield and the young girl climbed into the rear seat of Chester’s car with Evans. Whitfield was seated in the left rear behind the driver’s seat, the young girl in the center rear, and Evans on the right.

At Whitfield’s request, Chester agreed to stop at a liquor store and then to take Whitfield to St. Ferdinand Street. When they arrived at St. Ferdinand Street, Whitfield exited Chester’s car quickly, leaving the young girl behind. Chester, wanting to leave but not knowing what to do with the young girl, waited for thirty to forty minutes for Whitfield to return. When he did not, Chester returned to the area of Sarah and Hodiamont to look for the woman who had claimed to be the young girl’s mother. Unable to find her, he returned to St. Ferdinand, all the while carrying Evans and the young girl in his back seat.

Upon returning to St. Ferdinand, Chester parked in the same spot where he had left Whitfield. After a few minutes, Whitfield returned to the car, asked where Chester had been, and said that he would be just a few more minutes. When Whitfield exited the car this time, Evans asked him to take the young girl, but he refused. He then walked along the street to a car parked on the opposite side from, and one or two car lengths behind, Chester’s car. Charles Porter and his girlfriend Linda Scott were in this car. At trial Scott testified that they were in the neighborhood to have Varney Bolden, a friend of Porter’s, babysit Porter’s and Scott’s children. Porter was a friend of Whitfield’s, and Scott was acquainted with Whitfield.

Whitfield tried to obtain heroin from Porter and Scott, but Porter refused to give him any because Whitfield had no money. Porter then gave Whitfield a loaded .38 caliber pistol and said something, unclear from the testimony, about “the guy in the car across the street,” namely Chester.

Whitfield left Porter’s car and returned to Chester’s car, reentering the back seat directly behind Chester. Evans was still in the rear passenger side seat, and the young girl in the center. Whitfield then struck Chester in the back of the head with the gun and struck Evans in the forehead with the gun. About the same time, Bolden walked up to Chester’s car and urged Whitfield to shoot the two adults. Whitfield complied, shooting Chester twice in the head, causing Chester to slump across the steering wheel, and in turn causing the car to roll across the street and across the opposite curb. Whitfield then Turned toward Evans, but Evans grabbed the young girl and used her as a shield. Instead of shooting, Whitfield exited the car, pulling the young girl with him. From the passenger side, he then fired back into the car, at some point hitting Evans in the hand. Evans, hurt but alive, played dead, and Whit- field, Bolden, and the young girl fled.

Officer Jerry Leyshock heard a report of the shooting on his police radio and, having been previously acquainted with Whitfield, suspected he might be involved. He went to Barnes Hospital to speak with Evans, from whom he learned that the shooter and the young girl were named “Joe” and “Jodie.” Bolstered by this information, Officer Leyshock and several other officers went to a residence on Wells Street, where they located Whitfield, Scott, and Jodie. After retrieving the gun from the residence’s bathroom, the officers arrested Whitfield.