Lance Shockley received the death sentence on Friday for the March 2005 murder of Sergeant Carl Dewayne Graham Jr., a Missouri state trooper. The sentence was handed down by Judge David P. Evans of the 37th Judicial Circuit.
The prosecution claimed Shockley ambushed Graham while the Sergeant was in his driveway. Graham had investigated a fatal traffic crash in which Shockley reportedly was involved and fled.
More on this story at Missourinet.com
The following description is from a story by Todd C. Frankel, published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on March 30, 2005:
Armed with a shotgun, a rifle and fresh directions to a state trooper’s home in the Missouri Ozarks, a 28-year-old man waited for the officer to get off work and then killed him, authorities said Tuesday.
Lance Shockley knew Sgt. Carl D. Graham was looking into his role in a fatal vehicle crash months ago, police said.
Graham was shot March 20 as he stepped out of his cruiser near Van Buren, Mo. He was hit once by a rifle bullet and then at least once by a shotgun blast, authorities said.
Shockley, 28, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, nine days after more than 60 state and federal agents flooded this rural area perhaps best known for its proximity to the Current River.
Shockley was already in custody Tuesday after his arrest March 23 in the fatal accident. He’d been labeled “a person of interest” by the Missouri Highway Patrol in the shooting. Shockley was at the Carter County Courthouse for a hearing in that case when the murder charge was added.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Shockley borrowed his grandmother’s red Pontiac Grand Am on March 20 and that same day asked someone for directions to Graham’s residence. Police said several witnesses spotted a red Grand Am parked on a secluded gravel road just north of the trooper’s home that day.
Shockley owns several firearms, including .223-caliber and .224-caliber rifles and at least one 12-gauge shotgun, according to the affidavit. A search of Shockley’s house in Van Buren turned up a spent .22-caliber shell. A forensics comparison determined it matched a bullet pulled from Graham, police said.