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CRAIG WOOD TRIAL

Jurors in tears after seeing photos

Judge warns ahead of graphic testimony Tom Van De Berg
of the Greene
County Medical
Alissa Zhu and Harrison Keegan Before the jury was seated, Judge Examiner’s Office
Springfield News-Leader Thomas Mountjoy warned the contents describes the
USA TODAY NETWORK
of the third day’s testimonies would be condition of Hailey
graphic. Owens’ body when
A juror clenched a wad of tissues as He asked for anyone in the audience he examined her in
she listened to a medical examiner de- who might have physical or audible re- Craig Wood’s
scribe what he saw after descending actions to the testimonies to leave the basement during
into a bare basement on Feb. 18, 2014. courtroom. the murder trial
Wednesday was an emotionally “There cannot be any emotional out- Wednesday.
charged day in the trial of Craig Wood, bursts, crying, anything that will dis- ANDREW JANSEN/
the Springfield man accused of abduct- tract the jury today,” Mountjoy said. NEWS-LEADER
ing, raping and killing 10-year-old Hai-
ley Owens. See TRIAL, Page 6A

SUICIDE OR
Lisa
and Brad
Jennings
had been
married
18 years.
SUBMITTED

MURDER
PHOTO

WAS BUFFALO MAN

WRONGFULLY CONVICTED?
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK

Early on Christmas Day, 2006, Lisa Jennings

went into the bedroom of her Buffalo home, took
a handgun off a closet shelf and ended her life.
At 39, she committed suicide and left behind a
husband of 18 years and three children.
At least, that was the initial finding of the Dal-
las County coroner and the Dallas County Sher-
iff ’s Office.
Records of the investigation show that a coun-
ty deputy sheriff administered a gunshot residue
test that night — standard procedure in law en-
forcement — that indicated Jennings herself had
fired the gun.
Six weeks later, a front-page story in the Buf-
falo Reflex quoted Wayne Rieschel, Dallas Coun-
ty prosecuting attorney, saying the death was, in
fact, a suicide.
“There is zero evidence to show otherwise,”
Rieschel said.
Two months after Lisa Jennings was laid to
rest, records show, her younger sister went to the
Springfield office of the Missouri State Highway
Patrol and met with Sgt. Dan Nash. She suspect-
ed her sister was murdered by Lisa’s husband,
Brad Jennings.
Detective Nash has worked hundreds of
Amanda Jennings holds a photo of her mom and dad. She believes her mother committed suicide and homicide cases, including high-profile cold cases
her father was wrongfully convicted. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER in the Ozarks such as the 1985 murder of Jackie
Johns.
This case was not nearly as cold.
As a result of that meeting, Nash — whose
About this series
credibility has since been questioned by defense
The stories in this series are based substantially on court documents. A copy of the prosecution’s case attorneys — decided to re-investigate the death
file — as handed over by prosecutors to defense lawyers — was given by defense lawyers to McNiel, a of Lisa Jennings.
private investigator working for the defense. ❚ McNiel, in turn, released it to the News-Leader. ❚ The He pulled the investigative file from the sher-
newspaper independently requested the case file from the Missouri State Highway Patrol through the iff ’s department, including 90 photos from the
state’s open records law. The patrol denied the request on the grounds that an appeal is pending. ❚ In crime scene and autopsy. He studied pictures of
addition, the newspaper reviewed the 915-page transcript of the trial of Brad Jennings; the 225-page blood spatter and focused on a photo of Lisa Jen-
transcript of the appeal of Jennings’ conviction; and conducted multiple interviews with family mem- nings’ right hand; it had a single blood drop on it.
bers, attorneys and others. Nash thought there should be more “blow-back”
from the gunshot.
More inside Wrongful conviction? Is lack of evidence disclosure enough to award Brad Jennings
a new trial? Page 4A See JENNINGS, Page 5A

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Investigators: Terror suspect spent Have a look inside Greene County’s High 77° ❚ Low 52° Subscribe 800-695-2005
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4A ❚ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER
CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS
WRONGFUL CONVICTION?
THE DEATH OF LISA JENNINGS
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
It was a troubled marriage that over
18 years had been soured by too many
angry words and too many shouting
matches.
But Brad and Lisa Jennings, thus far,
had managed to stay together.
It was 2006, Christmas Eve.
They finished dinner at the small,
brick home of Brad's mother, where they
had exchanged gifts.
The couple left for home between 8
p.m. and 9 p.m., with their three chil-
dren in tow: son Dallas, 11; daughter
Amanda, 16; and Lisa's daughter Laci
Deckard, 19.
It's a 15-minute drive to their four-
bedroom home north of Buffalo.
The house sits unseen off a two-lane
country road. It requires a short, bouncy
ride past a stand of trees to view the
house, which is on 160 acres of family
farm homesteaded by Brad’s great-
great-grandparents.
Lisa and Brad helped build this
house. Lisa laid tile and helped paint it.
This night, she would die in it.
The house was a reflection of their fi-
nancial security. The couple did well.
Brad sold cars; he owned Jennings’ Auto
Sales in Buffalo.
He was a crackerjack mechanic, too,
according to his sister, Marsha Iler.
“When Brad was 14 years old, he was
rebuilding cars,” Iler said.
Lisa worked at PIP Internet Services,
in Buffalo, as a computer technician.
On Christmas Eve, once home, the
children played board games.
Lisa was nearby at the island counter
in the kitchen or in her study off the
kitchen. She was on her computer.
Many in Buffalo knew Lisa from a
hair salon she once owned and operated
in the late 1990s with her two sisters,
Shannon and Shawn. It was called A
Family Af ’Hair Salon and was in Louis-
burg, north of Buffalo.
Lisa relished Christmas and its prep-
arations. She typically hosted the cele-
bration at her home. Her sisters and
their families would come by on Christ-
mas Day.
Brad, typically a man in motion, was
busy in the attached garage, as well as
his garage/work place, which is de-
tached from the house. It’s where he had
a small office and where he was free to
smoke cigarettes. In the house, he was
relegated to a spot near the stove's ex-
haust fan.
Dallas did not know it but his father
was moving to the garage the boy’s main
Christmas present — a four-wheeler to
roam the farm.
The family would open presents in
the morning. The Christmas tree was in
the living room, with wrapped presents
underneath. The stockings hung off the
mantle above the faux fireplace.
In Lisa's stocking was a special sur-
prise from her husband.
It had been a pleasant evening,
Amanda would recall. The family was
enfolded in holiday tradition.
But once home, Lisa and Brad started
drinking, which often foretold a bumpy
road ahead. Lisa preferred wine and
Brad liked his Bud Light.
Amanda eventually went to bed and
Laci and Dallas headed upstairs where
they watched TV until about 1 a.m.
That's when they, too, went to bed.
The house has three bedrooms up-
stairs; Brad and Lisa had the master
downstairs.
Brad, too, eventually went to bed. Li-
sa stayed up, watching a movie in the
living room.
Soon after, the silent night was shat-
tered by the angry sounds of Brad and
Lisa yelling at one another, something
that happened far too often, according
to Amanda.
It woke up Laci at about 1:30 a.m. She
headed downstairs to play peacemaker.
Laci Deckard, now 30 years old, de-
clined to be interviewed for this series of
stories. She was raised by Brad and Lisa
from a young age.
But her recollection of that night is
available through public court docu-
ments reviewed by the News-Leader.
According to those records, Laci said
her mom was watching a “sad movie.”
“And she had a few glasses of wine, so
she was crying. And he (Brad) had
woken up and you know, asked her:
‘Why aren’t you in bed? And why are you
crying?’”
Amanda, too, was awakened by her
parents arguing.
“Nothing unusual, although I thought
K1
Amanda Jennings was home the night her mother died. She glanced into her
parents’ bedroom and saw her dad kneeling over her mother.
NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
A single blood drop is on the right hand of Lisa Jennings. FROM THE CASE FILE
it was stupid for them to fight on Christ-
mas,” she told the News-Leader.
“My mom was drinking and I guess
stayed up late watching TV 'til about
1:30-1:40 in the morning,” Amanda said.
Amanda tried to ignore the fighting,
hoping it would blow over.
“I fell asleep for maybe a minute or
two when I was woke up by my sister
yelling at my mom for fighting with my
dad on Christmas," Amanda said. "My
mom seemed very upset and was cry-
ing. At this time I believe my mom went
into her room or wherever. I went down-
stairs to put my mom and dad’s presents
in their stockings.”
Little brother Dallas followed her
downstairs.
Brad Jennings would later tell a crim-
inal investigator that he argued with Li-
sa over why she had not come to bed,
which made it difficult for the children
to put presents in her Christmas stock-
ing.
Brad told the investigator that he
drank three or four beers and that Lisa
had several glasses of wine and might
have been drunk.
According to Brad, when Laci came
downstairs she told them to “act like
adults and grow up.”
Frustrated, Laci went back upstairs
and gathered her belongings to leave.
Only recently had she moved from the
family home to a Buffalo apartment.
On the way out, she passed her par-
ents’ bedroom and exchanged what
would be her final words with her moth-
er.
They told each other "good night."
After Laci left, Brad exited the house
to cool down in his sanctuary, the de-
tached workshop.
When he returned, Amanda was
stuffing stockings for Christmas morn-
ing.
Brad told her and Dallas to go to bed.
Tomorrow would be a busy day.
‘Something bad had happened’
According to court documents, after
Laci left the house, Amanda was again
awakened.
“By my dad yelling and crying from
downstairs. … I knew something bad
had happened so I went downstairs.”
Amanda has told the story of what
happened that night many times.
She told it again 11 years later to a
News-Leader reporter who visited the
home in order to hear the story in rela-
tion to the layout of the house.
Amanda said she heard her father
yelling and crying. She walked halfway
down the stairs. From there, she could
see the door to her parents’ bedroom. It
was only partially open; she could not
see her parents but heard her father.
According to Amanda: “My dad was
on the phone — upset and hysterical. He
was shouting on the phone ‘Get here
quick! Get here quick!’"
(Records from the Dallas County 911
Dispatch Center indicate Brad Jennings
called at 2:06 a.m.)
“I hear him in there. He is crying.
Very, very upset. I come around the
stairs there and I just kind of pushed the
door open like this. And I see her laying
there. Everything goes blurry. As soon
as I open the door like that — I noticed
my dad is kneeling, right in front of her.
She is laying along the wall there.
“As soon as I open the door he jumps
up … pushes me out of the room so I
don’t see anything else, see anything
more. He is hugging me right here in the
hallway. He’s crying. I’m crying.”
Again, her little brother had tagged
along.
Dallas Jennings told the News-Lead-
er he caught a glimpse into the room but
did not really know what he saw.
Within minutes of Brad Jennings’
call, Dallas County Sheriff Mike Rackley
and two deputies arrived.
A third deputy, Scott Rice, with cam-
era in hand, joined them at 2:20 a.m.
According to court records, Brad told
Deputy Kyle Heidler that he entered the
bedroom and found Lisa on the floor
with a gaping gunshot wound to her
head. Brad said he did not hear the gun-
shot probably because he was in the de-
tached workshop. The couple had kept a
handgun in the bedroom closet for secu-
rity.
Brad told Heidler that he and Lisa had
argued and that when he found her in
the bedroom he held her bloody body in
his arms before calling 911.
The deputies asked Brad and the
children to leave the house while they
did a quick visual search to ensure no
one was in danger.
They observed the body of Lisa on
the floor of the master bedroom. Her tor-
so was inside the closet.
She apparently died from a gunshot
to the head. They did not see a weapon,
according to court records.
Outside, Brad and the children sat in
Amanda’s red Tahoe.
Amanda knew her mother was dead.
But Dallas sat next to her, repeating over
and over: “She will be OK. She will be
OK.”
Laci Deckard returned. Amanda had
told her on the phone their mother was
dead.
According to court records, Laci
asked Brad, "What did you do?"
Medical personnel confirmed Lisa
was dead from a gunshot to the head.
Law enforcement waited. They
would not re-enter the house until a
judge signed a search warrant. Among
their questions: Where was the gun?
Hours later, with search warrant in
hand, the deputies and sheriff entered
the house. They were accompanied by
Wayne Rieschel, the Dallas County
prosecuting attorney, and Bret Viets,
long-time county coroner.
When Viets moved Lisa’s body, the
gun — a .38-caliber revolver with a bar-
rel less than 2 inches long — was re-
vealed. It was under her legs.
To law enforcement, this indicated
that if Lisa killed herself, someone had
to later move the body. But Brad already
had told deputies he moved it when he
cradled her to him.
It fell to Deputy Rice to take photos of
the crime scene, including the entry and
exit wounds in Lisa’s skull. He took a
photo of the bullet, which was found in
the closet. He took a photo of her right
hand.
In all, Rice snapped 73 photos, in-
cluding those of blood stains on the
wall, in the closet and on the carpet.
That night, Rice also administered
gunshot residue tests to Brad, Lisa and
Laci.
This was standard procedure. A gun-
shot residue test, often called a GSR, is
used by law enforcement to test for the
presence of certain materials that are
likely to be on the hands and clothing of
someone who recently fired a gun.
The tests went to the Missouri State
Highway Patrol and a month later Rice
received the results. They were negative
on both of Brad’s hands and both of La-
ci’s hands.
The test was positive on the right
hand of Lisa, who was right-handed.
It appeared Lisa fired the gun and
took her own life.
An autopsy was performed the next
day by Dr. Keith Norton, who deter-
mined the cause of death was a contact
gunshot wound to the head — meaning
the muzzle was making contact with Li-
sa's head when the gun was fired.
It also revealed that Lisa’s percent-
age blood-alcohol level was .152 per-
cent, which is nearly twice the legal lev-
el for intoxication when driving.
Brad was not tested for possible in-
toxication.
Weeks later, the gunshot residue test
results came back and Coroner Viets
ruled the death of Lisa Jennings a sui-
cide. Her intoxication was listed as a
“significant condition.”
The gun was never checked for fin-
gerprints. It was soon returned to Jen-
nings, who did not want it. He gave it to
a friend who sold guns in Buffalo, who
cleaned and polished it.
The family did not stay in the house
that night or the next several nights. In-
stead, they lived temporarily in the
home of Brad’s mother.
Eventually, they opened their Christ-
mas gifts. Lisa never got to see what was
in her stocking. Brad had bought her a
$3,500 diamond for her wedding ring.
Amanda and Dallas were with their
father when he bought the stone in early
December 2006. The children helped
pick it out.
Days after Lisa's death, Iler, who is
Brad's sister, her husband and a few
close friends tackled the horrific job of
scrubbing away the blood and skull
fragments in the master bedroom.
Lisa was laid to rest on Thursday,
Dec. 28, 2006, next to her mother Judy
Sample at the entrance to Maple Lawn
Cemetery on Ash Street in Buffalo.
On the day she was placed in the
ground, her death was considered a sui-
cide.
But that would change.
Lisa's younger sister did not believe
her sister had killed herself. She be-
lieved Lisa had been murdered.
And although the blood was
scrubbed away, the crime scene was
preserved in all those photos Deputy
Rice snapped the night Lisa Jennings
died.

Trailer jail is exactly what it sounds like
Purported to be
first of its kind
Will Schmitt Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Wednesday’s chilly air and gloomy
skies pointed toward the onset of winter
above Greene County’s brand new trail-
er jail, purported to be the first of its
kind.
Stacked three high, 108 beds line the
stainless steel walls of the 53-foot semi-
trailers in a parking lot east of the
Greene County Jail.
Sheriff Jim Arnott gestured above at
the mesh netting over the rec yard. It’s
built to withstand snow and ice, he said,
but it also has security functions: to
hold county prisoners and to keep out
drugs and other contraband that could
be hoisted in from a nearby street or
dropped from a drone.
Arnott and representatives of All De-
tainment Solutions, which built the fa-
cility the county is leasing at a cost of
about $22 per day per prisoner, let local
reporters walk around the temporary
jail and ask questions about the project.
The trailer jail’s construction is about
95 percent done, Arnott said, though he
needs more staff before it can start
holding inmates. Two jail officers will be
on trailer-jail-duty at a time, and Arnott
said it takes 13 staffers to keep the tem-
porary detainment facility operating
around the clock.
The trailers sit inside tall chain-link
fences topped with razor wire. Other se-
curity features, including motion detec-
tors, were not discussed in detail with
reporters.
Numerous artificial eyes and ears al-
low the sheriff ’s staff to see and hear in-
side and outside the outdoor jail, and
being “over-camera-ed” is a good thing,
the sheriff says.
Inside the trailer jail is a common
area that will feature a television and
vending machine. There’s a private rest-
room for staff and a row of shower and
toilet facilities for inmates. “This is not
your average restroom,” Arnott said.
“It’s meant to stand up to abuse, and for
a long period of time and lots of traffic.”
It’s unclear how long the trailer jail
will be used. The county’s initial lease
lasts three years, and Arnott said he’ll
use it as long as he needs it.
It’s no secret that the Greene County
Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
In the end, Nash came to a different
conclusion than prior investigators. He
believed Lisa Jennings was shot in the
head by her husband.
According to court records, Nash told
that to Brad Jennings, who denied kill-
ing his wife and for the past decade has
continued to deny it.
Despite the accusation, Jennings
voluntarily cooperated with Nash, rec-
ords show. Jennings let the highway pa-
trol take crime-scene measurements in
his home. He agreed to be interviewed
without a lawyer present. He willingly
offered a DNA sample.
He also handed over to Nash the
bathrobe he wore that night so it could
be tested.
Jennings had not bothered to wash it
since Lisa’s death.
Subsequently, the highway patrol
found microscopic traces of blood on
the bathrobe that could not be seen by
the human eye because, in part, the
bathrobe was black.
On Christmas Day, Jennings told
sheriff ’s deputies that he held his wife’s
bloody body to him before calling 911.
Robert Ramsey, a St. Louis attorney
who now represents Jennings, said that
his client, like most people, had the ut-
most faith in the motives of police.
“Brad’s position was that they are law
enforcement officers; they are not going
to lie and cheat,” Ramsey said.
After the highway patrol tested the
bathrobe, Nash concluded the blood on
the robe could only have come from a
high-velocity gunshot wound, accord-
ing to court records.
Brad Jennings hadn’t just held his
wife’s body after she died — according
to Nash — he pulled the trigger.
Jennings was charged with second-
degree murder and armed criminal ac-
tion. He was convicted in August 2009
by a Dallas County jury and sentenced
to 25 years in prison.
During the trial, the prosecutor sug-
gested that Jennings — who did not tes-
tify — killed his wife while wearing the
bathrobe, then changed clothes and
washed up to remove gunshot residue
from his hands before police arrived.
The prosecutor also suggested that
the reason Lisa Jennings had gunshot
Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott talks about the bunks at the temporary jail during a tour Wednesday.
PHOTOS BY ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
Razor wire lines the top of the fence
around the new temporary jail facility.
Jail is overcrowded, leading the sheriff
to refuse low-level municipal offenders
and forcing some inmates to be hauled
to other counties in southwest Missouri
at cost. The trailer jail could allow the
county to save money by bringing its
prisoners home, Arnott said.
Arnott spoke in favor several times of
a proposed tax issue that could allow
the county to build a new jail to hold up
to 1,200 inmates. The election is next
Tuesday.
All Detainment Solutions, the com-
pany that built the trailer jail, was the
only bidder for the project, Arnott said.
The county has the responsibility for
Lisa Jennings, 39, died from a gunshot in this house in the early hours of
Christmas Day 2006. Her husband, Brad Jennings, was convicted of murdering
her. But new evidence suggests he might be innocent. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
residue on her right hand was not be-
cause she fired the weapon, but because
she was near Brad Jennings when he
fired it.
Today, Jennings, 61, is locked up at
the South Central Correctional Center in
Licking, Missouri.
His sister Marsha Iler, his only sib-
ling, visits him weekly.
Iler, a registered nurse, is zealous in
her belief that her brother did not kill his
wife.
She has spent approximately
$200,000, thus far, paying the mort-
gage on her brother’s farm and hiring
lawyers and private investigators to try
to prove his innocence. She hired inves-
tigator J. Dwight McNiel in January
2012.
McNiel reviewed the case through
the eyes of law enforcement — he once
was the sheriff of Christian County —
and he had one overriding piece of ad-
vice for Iler.
If the Missouri State Highway Patrol
tested the bathrobe for blood spatter,
McNiel said, they more than likely also
tested it for gunshot residue to see if
Brad Jennings fired the gun while wear-
ing the bathrobe, as the prosecution
contended he did.
It turns out, the highway patrol did
test the unwashed, blood-stained bath-
robe for gunshot residue.
The results, contained in a report
dated July 17, 2007, were negative.
This seemingly crucial piece of evi-
dence was never given to Brad Jennings’
defense lawyer. It was never revealed to
the jury that convicted him.
In fact, Jennings’ defense lawyer,
Darrell Deputy of Lebanon, in his clos-
ing argument in 2009 pleaded with ju-
K1 NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2017 ❚ 5A
Above is a look at the bathroom and
shower facilities at the temporary jail.
preventing escapes, though Arnott said
the company could be liable if a defect in
construction is to blame.
Arnott touted the company’s experi-
ence building temporary shelters for di-
saster survivors, though the company’s
president, Anthony Kelly, said the trail-
er jail is considerably stronger than
those used by hurricane refugees.
Kelly pointed out there were no rivets
in the walls and said the trailers will be
reusable. The company is looking at
other similar opportunities in counties
in Missouri and across the nation, he
said.
In case county officers use pepper
rors to ask themselves why patrol inves-
tigators did not conduct such a test —
apparently unaware that they actually
did.
“I would have done it in a heartbeat,”
Deputy told jurors, according to a trial
transcript.
Instead, the results of that gunshot
residue test sat in evidence storage with
the highway patrol until December 2015,
when an attorney hired by Iler came
calling.
That attorney, Lindsey Phoenix, sus-
pected the test existed and physically
reviewed the evidence file.
After 90 minutes, she found two
small canisters marked “GSR, black robe
Right” and “GSR, black robe Left.”
This evidence contradicts, according
to Phoenix, the prosecutor’s theory — if
Jennings shot his wife while wearing
the bathrobe, then the bathrobe would
have absorbed residue from the gunshot
along with her blood.
It also bolsters the defense’s conten-
tion that the reason there was no gun-
shot residue detected on his hands that
night is simple: Brad Jennings did not
fire a gun.
Now, the question is this: Is that lack
of disclosure enough to free Brad Jen-
nings? Is it enough to award him a new
trial?
In recent legal filings, the Missouri
Attorney General’s Office has said pros-
ecutors did not know at the time of trial
that the test was done and did not know
the results, putting the question of dis-
closure squarely on the highway patrol.
In December, defense attorney Ram-
sey filed a writ of habeas corpus, a con-
victed person’s last legal hope.
It is a request for a judge to vacate the
It’s no secret that the
Greene County Jail is
overcrowded, leading the
sheriff to refuse low-level
municipal offenders and
forcing some inmates to be
hauled to other counties in
southwest Missouri at cost.
spray, Arnott said, the air can be venti-
lated in less than a minute.
Among those accompanying the
company representatives were state
Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, a
Springfield native in her first term in of-
fice, and Greene County Presiding Com-
missioner Bob Cirtin.
Before the journalists got out of the
jail, Arnott showed the rec yard under-
neath the snow-proof, drug-proof
mesh. There’s hardly enough room for
much more than exercise, not that it
would matter — Arnott says he banned
competitive sports among inmates
years ago due to violent confrontations.
prior conviction and either release Jen-
nings or award him a new trial. Ramsey
has pinned his argument on the unfair-
ness of the lack of disclosure at trial.
The judge has scheduled an eviden-
tiary hearing — where witnesses are ex-
pected to testify — Nov. 7-8 in Rolla.
In his petition, Ramsey wrote: “What
was clearly a close case would likely
have had a different result ... (if not for)
the suppression of the highly material
gunshot residue test on petitioner’s
robe which clearly and convincingly ex-
hibits that petitioner is actually inno-
cent.”
Ramsey also took aim at the credibil-
ity of the highway patrol detective,
Nash, alleging in court filings that he
has a “history and propensity” to “pre-
sent false and fabricated evidence and
testimony.”
Such claims, if substantiated, could
have broad repercussions considering
the number of cases in which Nash has
been a lead investigator and pivotal wit-
ness at trial.
The News-Leader twice sought a re-
sponse from Nash, who said he was pro-
hibited by highway patrol policy from
discussing the case.
Oct. 1, the News-Leader met with
Timothy Davis, a Branson attorney rep-
resenting Nash in this matter.
In short, Davis said, it wasn’t Nash’s
legal responsibility to decide what was
disclosed to Jennings’ defense attorney.
That decision is up to the prosecutor,
Davis said. He also disputed the allega-
tion that Nash has a history of present-
ing false evidence.
“Dan is not in a position to intercept
the document, cancel it or tamper with
it,” Davis said. “Dan had no control what
they received or did not receive from the
crime lab.”
Court records indicate the results of
the gunshot residue test were faxed to
Nash. Even so, Davis said, it would be up
to the prosecutor to decide what to dis-
close to the defense attorney prior to
trial.
The newspaper asked Davis if Nash
knew, prior to trial, if the test results ex-
isted. “I don’t know,” he said.
Jennings is eight years into a 25-year
sentence. Ramsey would not allow the
News-Leader to speak to him directly
because Jennings is expected to testify
at the hearing.
But for the first time in years, Iler
said, her brother has hope.
MSU’s Coach Lusk: No Alize? No Problem. PAGE 1D

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Wood guilty of first-degree

Craig Wood stands with his
lawyers as he is found guilty of
first-degree murder on Thursday
in the death of 10-year-old Hailey
Owens. ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
murder in Hailey’s slaying
Harrison Keegan and Giacomo Bologna
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
A jury found Craig Wood guilty of first-
degree murder Thursday for the February
2014 killing of Springfield 10-year-old
Hailey Owens.
Prosecutors will now pursue the death
penalty against Wood in a separate court
proceeding that is expected to last a week.
Wood, 49, pulled Hailey into his truck
while the girl was walking home along the
3200 block of West Lombard Street on the
afternoon of Feb. 18, 2014, according to
police.
The prosecution and the defense made
closing arguments Thursday morning.
Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patter-
son started by showing selfies that Hailey
Owens had taken with her cellphone as
she walked home, moments before she
was kidnapped.
Patterson then described Craig Wood’s
actions that day, highlighting the deliber-
ation.
See VERDICT, Page 3A

CRAIG WOOD TRIAL

CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS

JENNINGS TO DETECTIVES:

Stacey Herman, the mother of Hailey

Owens, listens to closing arguments
‘THE EVIDENCE
IS LYING’
in the Craig Wood trial on Thursday. The News-Leader’s five-day series, Convicted
By Blood, continues through Monday. Coming
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER tomorrow: A look at the controversial “science”
of bloodstain-pattern analysis

Attorney:
To read previous installments, go online to
News-Leader.com/ConvictedByBlood.

Trial tough
for mother
of Hailey
Harrison Keegan Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK

It was understood among those

who attended the Craig Wood trial
this week at the Greene County court-
house to not sit in the middle of the
front row.
That spot was reserved for Stacey
Herman, the mother of Wood’s vic-
tim, Hailey Owens.
Though, Herman wasn’t always sit-
ting there.
There were times, like when the
medical examiners described Hailey’s
autopsy or when pictures of the girl’s
bloody clothes were shown to the jury, Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader | USA TODAY NETWORK Lisa and Brad Jennings kept a handgun on a shelf
that Herman felt like she couldn’t be in the master bedroom for security. CASE FILE

present.
But on Thursday morning, when a
jury convicted Wood of first-degree
murder for the February 2014 abduc-
tion, rape and killing of 10-year-old
Hailey, her mom was front and center
in the courtroom.
“Basically a big relief,” said David
Ransin, Herman’s attorney. “It’s been
three and a half years and she’s been
looking for the end of the tunnel. She’s
almost there.”
Herman is uncomfortable speak-
ing in front of TV cameras, but she
asked Ransin to speak to reporters on
her behalf Thursday while she stood
by his side outside of the courthouse.
See TRIAL, Page 3A
S
hawn Powell did not believe her younger
sister Lisa Jennings killed herself in the
early hours of Christmas 2006.
Powell’s suspicion that her brother-
in-law murdered Lisa was so strong that
in late February or early March 2007, she asked the
Missouri State Highway Patrol to review the case.
By then, the Dallas County coroner already had
concluded Lisa, while intoxicated, shot herself in
the head in the couple’s Buffalo home.
In February 2007, Wayne Rieschel, Dallas Coun-
ty prosecuting attorney, told the Buffalo newspa-
per there was “zero evidence” to show it was any-
thing but a suicide.
See JENNINGS, Page 4A
About this series
The stories in this series are based substantially on court
documents. A copy of the prosecution’s case file — as hand-
ed over by prosecutors to defense lawyers — was given by
defense lawyers to McNiel, a private investigator working
for the defense. ❚ McNiel, in turn, released it to the News-
Leader. ❚ The newspaper independently requested the case
file from the Missouri State Highway Patrol through the
state’s open records law. The patrol denied the request on
the grounds that an appeal is pending. ❚ In addition, the
newspaper reviewed the 915-page transcript of the trial of
Brad Jennings; the 225-page transcript of the appeal of
Jennings’ conviction; and conducted multiple interviews
with family members, attorneys and others.
More inside
10 key points in the Brad Jennings case, Page 5A

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4A ❚ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER
Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
Records show Powell took her con-
cerns to Sgt. Dan Nash, a longtime crim-
inal investigator with the patrol. She
met him at the highway patrol office in
Springfield.
Nash declined to speak to the News-
Leader, saying that patrol policy prohib-
ited him from commenting on a pending
case.
But Nash’s role in the investigation
can be gleaned from court documents
from the case file. In addition, the News-
Leader reviewed the 915-page transcript
of the Brad Jennings trial.
“I first became aware when some
people arrived at Troop D Headquarters
and went to the front desk and stated
that they wanted to talk to an investiga-
tor,” Nash said at the 2009 trial, accord-
ing to records. “I was the only one there,
and I spoke to them about it.”
It was Powell and two unnamed peo-
ple.
As a result of that meeting, Nash vis-
ited Dallas County Sheriff Mike Rackley,
who was one of several people who re-
sponded to the Jennings home after
Brad Jennings called 911.
Nash took the case file from Rackley
for review; it contained 90 photos from
the crime scene and autopsy.
“They fought a lot”
Powell, now 47, of Windyville, near
Buffalo, declined to be interviewed.
Court records examined by the
News-Leader suggest why she rejected
the official determination of suicide.
“They fought a lot,” Powell would say
in court. “We had a beauty shop togeth-
er, us three girls, for like almost 10 years.
So, we were together every day. And
there’s many times that she would come
in crying and upset, because of the
fighting and the accusations.”
For years, Lisa had talked about leav-
ing Brad, Powell said. But she never did.
“She was afraid that if she ever left
him she wouldn’t get her kids,” she said.
Brad and Lisa had two children, and
Brad had helped raise Lisa’s daughter
from a prior marriage, Laci Deckard.
According to court records, Powell
had spoken to Lisa just before Christ-
mas 2006. She had stopped by Lisa’s
place of employment.
“She had talked about that before,
wanting to leave, saying, ‘I’m going to
leave this time.’”
According to Powell, Lisa told her: “I
don’t care what he thinks anymore, I’m
going to make myself happy.”
Deckard also declined to talk to the
News-Leader. But court records reveal
how she viewed her mother’s marriage.
“It wasn’t a good one,” Deckard said.
“I mean, they were happy, maybe to out-
siders, but from my perspective they
weren’t. There was a lot of fighting and
they weren’t together very much.”
The death of Lisa Jennings opened a
painful chasm between her two sisters.
Powell described the family strain.
According to court records:
“It has torn my family completely
apart. Not only have I lost my sister, Li-
sa, I lost my other sister as well. And
even Lisa’s children. It’s just destroyed
the entire family.”
Lisa Jennings’ older sister — Shan-
non Bryan, 52 — lives in Urbana, near
Buffalo.
Bryan’s family and Brad and Lisa’s
family were close; they camped togeth-
er, their children played together. Often,
the Bryan children vacationed with the
Jennings family.
Shannon’s husband Paul is one of
Brad Jennings’ best friends.
Unlike Powell, Shannon Bryan be-
lieves her sister Lisa committed suicide.
Shannon Bryan would not talk di-
rectly to the News-Leader, despite the
fact she believes Brad Jennings was
wrongfully convicted. She feared that
talking to a reporter would further
strain family relations.
For this series, Paul Bryan answered
questions and relayed queries from the
newspaper to his wife.
Detective is suspicious
According to records, when Nash re-
viewed the case file, one photo in partic-
ular caught his attention. It showed Lisa
Jennings’ right hand with a single drop
of blood on it.
Nash concluded this was inconsis-
tent with a self-inflicted, contact gun-
shot wound. “Contact” means the muz-
zle was touching Lisa’s head when the
gun was fired.
“There was a large amount of blow-
back effect to the right side of her skull.
Which would have pushed brain matter
and tissue, and skull, and there is some,
all the way down the wall about four
feet,” he said at the trial.
“But yet, there’s nothing on her hand,
except this one little droplet. That’s it.
When her hand should be covered, and
her arm and wrist should be covered
with all this stuff from this blow-back
effect.
Brad and Lisa Jennings were married 18 years. It was his third marriage and her second. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
Lisa Jennings died in the early morning hours of Christmas Day 2006. Her
husband was convicted of her murder and has been in prison for eight years. He
says he was wrongfully convicted. STEVE POKIN/NEWS-LEADER
The Dallas County prosecuting attorney told the local Buffalo paper that the
death of Lisa Jennings was a suicide, not a homicide. THE BUFFALO REFLUX
“That immediately gave me suspi-
cion that she probably did not shoot
herself.”
Nash also wondered why Jennings
had changed from his black bathrobe —
which he wore when his wife died — into
jeans and a shirt, which he was wearing
by the time sheriff ’s deputies arrived
minutes after he called 911.
As Nash took a new look at the case,
it did not take long for Brad Jennings to
become aware it was being re-investi-
gated.
According to court records, Jennings
called the detective in March 2007.
Nash wrote that Jennings “wanted to
know who gave the Missouri State High-
way Patrol permission to investigate the
death of his wife and asked why we were
butting into his business. Jennings then
stated, ‘This needs to be put to bed. This
has already been cleared up.’”
Nevertheless, Jennings voluntarily
cooperated with Nash’s investigation.
Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey of St. Louis, explained why.
“Brad is like the majority of people
that rarely hear about police miscon-
duct. Law enforcement officers always
tell the truth and always do the right
thing. Brad’s position was that they are
law enforcement officers; they are not
going to lie and cheat.”
Nash wanted to test the slippers that
Jennings wore the night of his wife’s
death. Jennings gave them to him.
Nash wanted to take measurements
involving blood spatter inside the
house. Jennings said OK.
Nash wanted to take a DNA sample
from inside Jennings’ mouth. Jennings
let him.
Nash wanted to test the black bath-
robe Jennings wore the night his wife
died, as any blood on it would not neces-
sarily be visible to the naked eye. Jen-
nings gave it to him.
Since Lisa’s death, Jennings had not
bothered to wash the slippers or the
bathrobe. They were still in the master
bedroom.
Jennings had mostly avoided enter-
ing the bedroom since his wife of 18
years had died.
Jennings’ sister, Marsha Iler, told the
News-Leader her brother acted like an
innocent man back in 2007 because he
was — and is.
“He did not have anything to hide,”
she said.
“Looks kind of bad”
On March 26, 2007, Jennings volun-
tarily agreed to talk to Nash at Troop D
Highway Patrol headquarters at 3131 E.
Kearney St. in Springfield.
According to court documents, Jen-
nings had asked his lawyer, Darrell Dep-
uty, of Lebanon, if he should speak to
the detective and Deputy said yes.
“He told me to go on up and talk to see
what they wanted, that’s what he said,”
Jennings would later say.
Sheriff Rackley was present, as well.
Deputy was not.
In Nash’s report, he noted several
ways Jennings moved that, in Nash’s
view, indicated he was nervous.
“He crossed his legs away from me,
began to rub his mouth, looked away as I
asked questions about the body, its po-
sition and the scene. I also noticed that
as Jennings would answer these ques-
tions, he would cover his mouth with his
hand, but when I asked him other insig-
nificant questions, his body language
would ease, he would not cover his
mouth with his hand or rub his nose.”
Nash would later repeat these obser-
vations to jurors.
Jennings’ attorney made no objec-
tions and never suggested in his closing
argument that perhaps Jennings found
it difficult to talk in detail about finding
his wife with a massive gunshot wound
to her head.
According to an investigative report
St. Louis attorney Robert Ramsey now
represents Brad Jennings.
STEVE POKIN/NEWS-LEADER
written by Nash, “Jennings then began
to tell me how he thought his wife made
a quick, stupid decision and just shot
herself because she was mad and had
been depressed. Jennings advised he
had been worried about her for a year or
so, as she had been unhappy and de-
pressed.
“I then asked Jennings why would he
have changed his clothing and he ad-
vised he did not know — that much of
the evening he cannot remember.
“I then advised Jennings there were
some discrepancies between his state-
ment of the events surrounding his
wife’s death and the forensic evidence
at the scene. I explained the results of
the crime-scene reconstruction and
further explained the results of the
blood-stain pattern analysis.
“After explaining this to Jennings, he
advised he was not good at science and
did not really understand what I was
saying.
“I further explained to Jennings my
concerns reference the lack of blood
spatter on the right hand of Lisa Jen-
nings and showed him several photo-
graphs of the crime scene and explained
my concerns.
“Jennings stated, ‘I don’t know.’
“Jennings further stated, ‘That looks
kind of bad doesn’t it?’
“Jennings then advised that in his
opinion this was a suicide.
“I advised Jennings that in my opi-
nion it was not a suicide and he again
stated — ‘I know what the evidence
looks like and I cannot explain it.’”
According to court documents, Jen-
nings’ recollection of that interview
with Nash was this: “He (Nash) showed
me the pictures and told me that I done
it.”
After the interview, Jennings called
Deputy and asked if he should give them
the bathrobe that they wanted to test.
According to Jennings, Deputy told
him: “Give them what they want.”
So he did.
At a later appellate hearing, attorney
Dee Wampler asked Jennings if Deputy
had told him that it appeared he was the
“target of a murder investigation”?
“No,” Jennings said.
Nash and Rackley followed Jennings
home, and Jennings handed over the
bathrobe.
Arrested on murder charge
Over the next few months, Jennings
continued to live in the house with his
two children; he continued to run his
auto sales business in Buffalo.
In the meantime, Nash continued to
oversee the investigation.
On June 21, 2007, Nash was inside
the lab and directly assisted Jason Wy-
coff, a DNA criminalist at the Missouri
State Highway Patrol lab, in the testing
of Jennings’ bathrobe.
“Jason and I decided that the best
way to do this was to do it together,”
Nash said, according to court records.
Continued on next page

10 key points in the Brad Jennings case
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
1. Lisa Jennings died of a gunshot
wound on Christmas Day 2006, in the
bedroom of her Buffalo home. Who
pulled the trigger is in dispute: Authori-
ties initially concluded she killed her-
self; the Missouri State Highway Patrol,
and later a jury, decided she was killed
by her husband, Brad Jennings.
2. The patrol detective, Sgt. Dan
Nash, studied photos of blood spatter at
the scene and focused on a photo of Lisa
Jennings’ right hand; it had a single
blood drop on it. Nash thought there
should be more if Lisa Jennings shot
Connecting CU now stores wind, solar energy in batteries
retirees with
volunteer
opportunities
From Staff Reports Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Years ago, the word “retirement”
might have evoked images of white-
haired couples sitting in rocking chairs
on their front porches. But with men
and women living longer and enjoying
better health into their later years, re-
tirement has become an extremely ac-
tive phase of life where retirees are able
to channel their passions into purpose.
Springfield, like any other communi-
ty, has a large and growing need for
skilled volunteers and volunteer leader-
ship — at nonprofits and charities, at
schools and learning institutions and in
public service roles. In a recent commu-
nity study, Drury University determined
that Springfield-area nonprofit organi-
zations are in need of an additional
8,000 volunteers.
While many retiring and retired baby
boomers aren’t aware of the wide varie-
ty of volunteer opportunities available
in Springfield, many organizations
needing volunteers are also not pre-
pared for the army of skilled retirees on
the horizon. City Manager Greg Burris
recognized that Springfield needs a pro-
gram that connects these two needs and
has created it: Give 5.
The proposed Give 5 program aims to
connect boomers with organizations in
most need of their assistance, address-
ing the needs to inform, inspire and con-
nect individuals.
Give 5 volunteer opportunities center
around nonprofits in Springfield that
address issues identified in the City’s
Community Listen / Zone Blitz initiative
and in the Impacting Poverty Commis-
sion’s report to the community.
Baby boomers are known for having a
strong work ethic, and Burris believes
that retiring may be difficult for a group
that largely gains their purpose in life
from their jobs. Give 5 is designed to
help individuals explore what next
steps they can take to “rewire and re-
fire,” rather than just retire.
Continued from previous page
Test results showed not just blood on
the robe — as would be expected, since
Jennings told investigators he had held
his wife’s bloody body — but a partic-
ular kind of blood pattern.
It was “atomized blood that was not
visual with the human eye,” Nash wrote
in a report.
“During inspection of the lower right
quadrant of the robe, several stains
were located that tested positive for
blood. This quadrant overall and the
right upper middle quadrant also tested
positive for atomized blood.”
Nash testified in 2009 that he con-
cluded the “atomized blood” could not
have come from a “transfer” blood stain,
such as when Jennings held Lisa’s body.
Nash would also testify he believed
the “atomized blood” of Lisa Jennings
was on the bathrobe because her hus-
band was next to her when he shot her
in the head.
Blood-spatter analysis, also called
bloodstain pattern analysis, is the inter-
pretation of bloodstains at a crime scene
in an attempt to re-create the actions
that caused the bloodshed. Analysts ex-
amine the size, shape, distribution and
location of the bloodstains to form opin-
ions about what did or did not happen.
The National Academy of Sciences
did a wide-ranging examination of fo-
rensic sciences, including blood-spat-
ter analysis, and released a report in
2009 that concluded:
“... Extra care must be given to the
way in which the analyses are present-
herself.
3. Nash also found microscopic blood
on the bathrobe Brad Jennings wore that
night. Brad Jennings said it was from
holding his wife’s bloody body. Nash
concluded the blood must have come
from Brad Jennings shooting his wife.
4. Jennings was convicted of murder
in August 2009 and sentenced to
25 years in prison. His sister, Marsha Il-
er, has spent approximately $200,000
trying to prove his innocence.
5. In 2012, she hired investigator J.
Dwight McNiel, one-time sheriff of
Christian County. McNiel recommend-
ed she try to locate a gunshot residue
test — unmentioned at trial or in the pa-
Wes Johnson Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
City Utilities now has the ability to
store electricity from renewable wind,
solar and hydroelectric sources — as
well as from coal — thanks to a $1 mil-
lion battery bank that was dedicated
Thursday on the city’s south side.
CU split the cost of the Battery Ener-
gy Storage System at Cox Substation
with NorthStar Battery, which has a
large battery manufacturing plant in
Springfield.
According to CU, it allows the use of
renewable energy to charge the batter-
ies during off-peak times and then dis-
charge at times of peak demand. CU
says it’s the first system of its kind in
the Midwest.
The system uses 1,140 briefcase-size
batteries connected in a way to store
1 megawatt hour of electricity, accord-
ing to Frank Fleming, NorthStar’s sen-
ior technical adviser.
“In 2017, we estimate that we’re go-
ing to deliver over 35 percent of the en-
ergy to this community from renew-
able energy, and that’s a huge transi-
tion from 1970, and really from a dec-
ade ago,” said Scott Miller, CU’s general
manager.
Having the ability to store that pow-
er for when it’s needed could be a huge
advance for the utility, he said.
“It’s a research project that, if suc-
cessful, we can show that battery stor-
age can be economic in the central part
of the United States, that could really
Springfield men arrested on drug charges in Branson
Will Schmitt Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Following a routine traffic stop, two
men from Springfield and one from
Branson were arrested Saturday on
drug and weapon charges related to a
string of break-ins.
Gregory Komer and Matthew Bress-
man of Springfield and Justin Walsh-
Peterson of Branson were charged with
felony possession of methamphet-
amine, according to city officials.
ed in court. The uncertainties associat-
ed with bloodstain pattern analysis are
enormous.”
At trial, Jennings’ defense attorney
called one witness — Shannon Bryan —
who testified that Jennings is right-
handed. The attorney brought this out
in the hope that the fact no blood or
blow-back was found on the robe’s right
sleeve would undercut the state’s the-
ory that Jennings shot his wife.
Once testing of the bathrobe was
complete, Nash submitted a probable
cause statement and Jennings was
charged.
Jennings was driving his pickup
home from work to check on the chil-
dren at 9:30 a.m. July 27, 2007, when he
was pulled over and arrested for mur-
der.
The arresting officers were Nash,
Sheriff Rackley and Sgt. Michael Rog-
ers, with the highway patrol’s criminal
investigation division. Rackley read
Jennings his Miranda rights.
Since Buffalo is a small town, Jen-
nings’ cousin — Pam Freeman — hap-
pened to be driving by and saw the ar-
rest at the intersection of Victory and
New Hope roads.
“Call my mom and tell her to get the
kids!” Jennings shouted, according to
Iler.
According to Nash’s arrest report:
“While transporting Jennings to the
jail, he continued to make unsolicited
statements about the death of his wife,
Lisa Jennings. Jennings stated that we
must have the wrong guy, that we were
making a mistake. Jennings then stated
NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017 ❚ 5A
trol’s reports — conducted on Brad Jen-
nings’ robe.
6. In 2015, an attorney hired by Iler
discovered the Highway Patrol did, in
fact, test the unwashed, blood-stained
bathrobe for gunshot residue. The re-
sults were negative, casting doubt on
the prosecution’s argument that Brad
Jennings pulled the trigger.
7. Based on that alleged suppression
of evidence, known as a Brady violation,
Brad Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey, filed a writ of habeas corpus
asking that his client be released or
granted a new trial.
8. Ramsey also has taken aim at the
patrol detective, Nash, alleging in court
City Utilities, in partnership with NorthStar Battery, installed 6,840 battery
cells into the new Battery Energy Storage System at Cox Substation to provide
1 megawatt of battery power. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
help us with all of our wind renewable
sources that are out there,” Miller told a
crowd of about 100 at the dedication.
“If successful, this project will allow
us to take those intermittent renewable
energy sources and incorporate those,
not only in City Utilities, but also
across the United States’ electric grid.”
The batteries are contained in two
long steel buildings at the Cox substa-
tion, 4300 S. Cox Road. Miller said the
lead-acid batteries are significantly
less expensive than lithium ion batter-
From left, Justin Walsh-Peterson of
Branson, Gregory Komer of
Springfield, Matthew Bressman of
Springfield. BRANSON POLICE DEPARTMENT
Walsh-Peterson also was charged
with unlawful possession of a firearm
(handgun). All charges are for class D
he was sure his wife had committed sui-
cide.
“I advised Jennings that it was my
understanding he was being represent-
ed by legal counsel and I could not ask
him any questions.
“Jennings stated several times he un-
derstood his rights and he made his own
decisions, not his lawyer. I advised Jen-
nings if he wished to talk, we would give
him that opportunity.”
Jennings called Deputy and informed
him he had just been arrested for murder.
“Upon ending the telephone conver-
sation, Jennings advised he wished to
talk with us. Sergeant Rogers asked
Jennings what advice his lawyer had
provided and Jennings stated, ‘Not to
talk to you guys.’
“Jennings then stated, ‘He is my law-
yer, but I make my own decisions and I
want to talk with you guys.’”
Jennings signed a Miranda-rights
waiver.
Rogers filed a report on his interroga-
tion of Jennings that day.
“I asked Jennings if he knew Lisa was
in the process of renting an apartment
to move into when she died. He said he
did not,” Rogers wrote.
A blank rental application had been
mailed to Lisa at work, according to trial
testimony from Laci Deckard, who said
her mother never filled it out.
Rogers also said to Jennings: “I asked
if he knew she was having an affair. He
said she had an affair years ago and he
suspected her again and had asked her
sometime in the recent past, but she de-
nied it.”
filings that the longtime investigator
has a “history and propensity” to “pre-
sent false and fabricated evidence and
testimony.”
9. The Missouri Attorney General’s
Office acknowledges the gunshot resid-
ue test was overlooked but says prosecu-
tors were unaware it existed; an attorney
for Nash blames the lack of disclosure on
prosecutors. Regardless, the state ar-
gues, other evidence was so strong Jen-
nings would still have been convicted.
10. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 7-8 in
Rolla to argue the case, after which a
judge will decide whether Jennings will
stay in prison, walk free or be granted
another trial.
ies. Part of the Cox Energy Storage Sys-
tem project will focus on how cost-ef-
fective the battery system is.
Each battery contains a smart chip
that monitors how it’s doing and how
efficiently it’s delivering electricity to
CU’s electric grid. The battery system is
monitored and operated remotely.
“We first want to prove it works and
that it’s economic for our customers,”
Miller said. “What better place to do
this than right on the edge of the wind
belt?”
felonies.
The vehicle the men were in was
stopped around 4:30 a.m. Saturday by
a Branson police officer, who discov-
ered stolen property in the vehicle.
“As this traffic stop took place early
in the morning, the victims had not
even discovered their cars had been
broken into and their property taken,”
said Eric Schmitt, assistant police
chief, in a statement.
The men were booked into the Ta-
ney County Jail.
No evidence was introduced at trial
that Lisa Jennings was having an affair
in the months preceding her death.
In addition, according to the trial
transcript, Rogers also told Jennings:
“Well, Dallas was sitting on the couch
and I think he saw you do it.”
There was no evidence of that, either.
Dallas Jennings told the News-Leader
he did not see his father shoot his moth-
er and is convinced his father was
wrongfully convicted.
Law enforcement investigators are
allowed to lie to suspects in an attempt
to get them to incriminate themselves.
Jennings told Rogers that his son saw
no such thing.
According to Rogers’ report:
“I asked him why Lisa would want to
kill herself. He said he didn’t know.
“... I told Jennings if Lisa had shot
herself, there should be blood all over
the hand she had the gun in. He agreed
with me. I then told him there was no
blood at all, except one small drop on
her right hand. He said he couldn’t ex-
plain the lack of blood on her hand.
“Throughout the questioning, Jen-
nings repeated several times that, ‘I
know the truth.’
“When I asked him what it was, he
repeatedly said, ‘You’re trying to get me
to admit to something I didn’t do.’”
Rogers wrote that investigators told
Jennings the evidence from the bath-
robe he wore that night showed he must
have been standing next to Lisa when
she was shot in the head.
Jennings responded:
“‘The evidence is lying.’”
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CRAIG WOOD’S SENTENCING

4 big moments from Day 1 Hailey’s pastor talks about

Giacomo Bologna and Harrison Keegan
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
After a jury convicted him of first-de-
gree murder Thursday, Craig Wood is now
facing the death penalty in his sentencing,
which began Friday morning.
Wood killed 10-year-old Hailey Owens
on Feb. 2014.
Wood kidnapped and raped Hailey be-
fore shooting her in the head and, accord-
ing to prosecutors, the only appropriate
MORE INSIDE
Group protests death penalty outside
Craig Wood sentencing, Page 5A
sentence is death.
Friday’s sentencing phase began with
opening statements by the prosecution
and defense, followed by testimony from
several witnesses. Testimony will con-
tinue Saturday at 8:30 a.m.
Here are four big moments from Friday:
forgiveness — and justice
Pat Findley, a pastor who has been with
Hailey’s’ family during the grieving proc-
ess, said Hailey’s death had an impact on
the Springfield community.
Findley said a lot of parents no longer
let their children play outside without su- Pastor Pat Findley testifies in
pervision or walk to school in the morning. court during the sentencing phase
of the Craig Wood trial on Friday.
See WOOD, Page 5A ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER

CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS

Stacey Herman, the mother of Hailey

STUDY: BLOODSTAIN
ANALYSIS FULL OF
Owens, listens while in court for the
trial of Craig Wood on Monday.
NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER

Mother: I’ll be at
peace with life or
death for Wood
UNCERTAINTIES
The News-Leader’s five-day series, Convicted By Blood, continues through Monday. Coming tomorrow:
Harrison Keegan Springfield News-Leader Arguments made – and not made – at the trial of Brad Jennings
USA TODAY NETWORK
To read previous installments, go online to News-Leader.com/ConvictedByBlood.
The mother of Hailey Owens said Fri-
day she is looking forward to having clo-
sure.
Over the last three and a half years,
Stacey Herman has attended dozens of
court appearances as the case of her
daughter’s killer, Craig Wood, has
moved through the court system.
Sometime in the next few days, a jury
will sentence Wood.
“We’re very, very close to getting
done with the trial and everything,”
Herman said. “And she’ll finally get her
justice that I have been waiting for.”
The jury has two options — sentence
Wood to the death penalty or give him
life in prison without the possibility of
parole for killing 10-year-old Hailey in
February of 2014.
Herman said Friday she is OK with ei-
ther sentence.
“At least I’ll know what the final say
is,” Herman said.
In early April, Herman had asked
Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patter-
son to accept a plea deal in the case to Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader A blood-spatter analysis by the Missouri State
avoid a trial. USA TODAY NETWORK Highway Patrol led to the conviction of Brad Jennings
Now that the trial is almost over, Her- in 2009. PHOTO FROM THE CASE FILE

A
man said she trusts the jury. record number of U.S. prisoners
were released in 2016 because they
See MOTHER, Page 5A were wrongly convicted, often after
being locked away for decades based on
false or misleading forensic evidence, ac-
cording to research compiled by the Na-
tional Registry of Exonerations.
Last year,168 people were exonerated.
Daylight saving In 1989, the first year the registry kept a
time ends tomorrow tally, there were 23.
Some are cleared too late.
Turn your clocks back one hour, and Mark Collin Sodersten was exonerated
don’t forget to check the batteries in 2007, a year after he died at age 48 in
in your smoke detectors. Corcoran State Prison in California.
It was discovered that prosecutors and
law enforcement authorities never dis-
closed to defense attorneys that there
were tape-recorded statements from two
key prosecution witnesses that contained
inconsistent statements, as well as ad-
missions of lying and the coercive interro-
gation of a witness.
See JENNINGS, Page 4A
GETTY IMAGES
About this series
The stories in this series are based substantially on
court documents. A copy of the prosecution’s case file
— as handed over by prosecutors to defense lawyers —
was given by defense lawyers to McNiel, a private in-
vestigator working for the defense. ❚ McNiel, in turn,
released it to the News-Leader. ❚ The newspaper in-
dependently requested the case file from the Missouri
State Highway Patrol through the state’s open records
law. The patrol denied the request on the grounds that
an appeal is pending. ❚ In addition, the newspaper
reviewed the 915-page transcript of the trial of Brad
Jennings; the 225-page transcript of the appeal of
Jennings’ conviction; and conducted multiple inter-
views with family members, attorneys and others.
More inside
10 key points in the Brad Jennings case, Page 4A

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4A ❚ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER
10 key points in the Brad Jennings case
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
1. Lisa Jennings died of a gunshot
wound on Christmas Day 2006, in the
bedroom of her Buffalo home. Who
pulled the trigger is in dispute: Authori-
ties initially concluded she killed herself;
the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and
later a jury, decided she was killed by her
husband, Brad Jennings.
2. The patrol detective, Sgt. Dan Nash,
studied photos of blood spatter at the
scene and focused on a photo of Lisa
Jennings’ right hand; it had a single
blood drop on it. Nash thought there
should be more if Lisa Jennings shot her-
Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
Fifty-seven of the 168 exonerations
in 2016 involved defendants who sat in
court, presumed innocent, as a so-
called forensics expert provided evi-
dence that years later was deemed un-
reliable or inaccurate.
Many in criminal justice believe the
actual number of wrongful convictions
is far higher.
The Dallas County jury that convict-
ed Brad Jennings in 2009 of murdering
his wife relied heavily on blood-spatter
evidence presented by the Missouri
State Highway Patrol.
Jennings and his current attorney,
Robert Ramsey, believe the jury got it
wrong because key evidence was with-
held from Jennings’ defense lawyer at
trial.
Jurors also got it wrong, Ramsey ar-
gued in court filings and in an interview
with the News-Leader, because blood-
spatter evidence presented by Sgt. Dan
Nash, of the highway patrol, was inac-
curate.
Efforts to prove Jennings’ innocence
continue today — eight years after he
was sent to prison.
Ramsey will be able to present his
own blood-spatter expert at a hearing
for Jennings on Nov. 7-8 in Rolla. Ram-
sey wants to do this despite calling
blood-spatter evidence in general “al-
most junk science.”
Ramsey explained in an interview
that his expert had better credentials
and more training than Nash. In court
filings, he says his expert will expose
“numerous glaring errors” in the state’s
blood-spatter conclusions.
At trial, Nash testified that the high-
way patrol found microscopic blood
particles — an “atomized mist” — of Li-
sa Jennings’ blood on the bathrobe her
husband wore the night she died.
This type of blood pattern, Nash told
jurors, must have come from a gunshot
and since Brad Jennings was wearing
the robe with the atomized mist he must
have shot his wife.
At trial, Nash said, “There is a sci-
ence to all of this.”
That’s debatable. In recent years, the
field of blood-spatter analysis has been
heavily criticized for not having much
science to it at all.
National studies have concluded
that several forensic sciences, such as
those focused on blood spatter, bite
marks, handwriting, tire tread and foot-
print impressions, ballistics and arson
are unreliable because they are not
grounded in scientific research.
The gold standard in forensics is
DNA evidence, according to a study by
the National Academy of Sciences pub-
lished in 2009.
DNA serves as a double-edged
sword; it is used not only to convict the
guilty but to free the innocent.
It has cleared thousands of suspects
and led to 342 exonerations, including
20 people who had been sentenced to
death.
These exonerations have led many to
ask: How can our criminal justice sys-
tem — based on the premise that it is
better that a guilty man go free for lack
of proof than an innocent man be con-
victed — allow a growing number of in-
nocent people to be sent to prison?
Often the answer involves the two is-
sues Jennings’ lawyer is raising: faulty
forensic analysis and the lack of disclo-
sure by prosecutors of evidence that
would have been helpful to the defen-
dant.
This failure to disclose exculpatory
information is called a Brady violation,
named after a convicted man whose
case was the subject of a 1963 U.S. Su-
preme Court decision.
According to an August story in the
New York Times magazine, a 2002
study by researchers at Columbia Law
School reviewed 2,700 death sentences
across the nation and found that 351
convictions were ultimately overturned
in state appellate courts.
In about 20 percent of those cases,
the state failed to disclose evidence at
self.
3. Nash also found microscopic blood
on the bathrobe Brad Jennings wore that
night. Brad Jennings said it was from
holding his wife’s bloody body. Nash
concluded the blood must have come
from Brad Jennings shooting his wife.
4. Jennings was convicted of murder
in August 2009 and sentenced to
25 years in prison. His sister, Marsha Iler,
has spent approximately $200,000 try-
ing to prove his innocence.
5. In 2012, she hired investigator J.
Dwight McNiel, one-time sheriff of
Christian County. McNiel recommended
she try to locate a gunshot residue test —
unmentioned at trial or in the patrol’s re-
A blood-spatter analysis by the Missouri State Highway Patrol led to the
conviction of Brad Jennings in 2009. FROM THE CASE FILE
trial.
“The Catch-22 of Brady is that you
have to find out they’re hiding some-
thing to have a claim,” said Kathleen Ri-
dolfi, lead author of a separate study of
wrongful convictions for the Northern
California Innocence Project, according
to the Times story.
Bias and subjectivity
The 2009 National Academy of Sci-
ences study of forensic evidence was
the most extensive done in the United
States.
“In general,” it stated, “the opinions
of bloodstain pattern analysis are more
subjective than scientific.
“... Extra care must be given to the
way in which the analyses are present-
ed in court. The uncertainties associat-
ed with bloodstain pattern analysis are
enormous.”
The report concluded that those in-
terpreting blood patterns in court pro-
ceedings should have, at minimum, an
understanding of applied mathematics,
the physics of fluid transfer and the pa-
thology of wounds.
A follow-up to the 2009 study con-
firmed the shortcomings of many foren-
sic sciences — without focusing specifi-
cally on blood spatter.
The 2016 Report to the President: Fo-
rensic Science in Criminal Courts ad-
dressed “cognitive bias” as a problem.
“Cognitive bias” is the way in which
human judgments are shaped by fac-
tors other than those relevant to the de-
cision at hand. It includes “‘confirma-
tion bias,” where individuals interpret
information, or look for new evidence,
in ways that conform to their preexist-
ing belief or assumption.
The report cited a study that showed
fingerprint examiners can be influenced
in their interpretations if they know
what other forensic examiners already
concluded.
The study’s authors recommended
that those working in forensic labs have
minimal exposure to other crime-scene
evidence and things like confessions or
eyewitness identifications.
In the Jennings case, not only did the
detective, Nash, reopen the case and
serve as lead investigator, he also di-
rectly participated in testing evidence
in the crime lab.
Nash testified that he was with Jason
Wycoff, a DNA specialist with the high-
way patrol, when they tested Jennings’
bathrobe for blood.
According to the trial transcript,
Nash said as a “general rule” the lab did
not allow investigators to be present
during testing.
He said: “Jason and I decided that the
best way to do this was to do it together.
“The first thing we did was we laid
the robe out on a table. And we divided
the robe into quadrants. Basically sec-
tions. So that we would work in a sec-
tion at a time.”
According to the transcript, Wycoff
also said it was unusual to have a law
enforcement officer present as he test-
ed, adding that Nash told him he want-
ed to see what kind of blood pattern
there was on the robe, if any.
ports — conducted on Brad Jennings’
robe.
6. In 2015, an attorney hired by Iler
discovered the Highway Patrol did, in
fact, test the unwashed, blood-stained
bathrobe for gunshot residue. The re-
sults were negative, casting doubt on the
prosecution’s argument that Brad Jen-
nings pulled the trigger.
7. Based on that alleged suppression
of evidence, known as a Brady violation,
Brad Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey, filed a writ of habeas corpus
asking that his client be released or
granted a new trial.
8. Ramsey also has taken aim at the
patrol detective, Nash, alleging in court
The News-Leader asked a patrol
spokesman what the policy was in 2007
regarding whether detectives could be
in the highway patrol crime lab during
testing — as well as assist in the testing
— and what the policy is today. The
spokesman declined comment because
the Jennings case is still pending.
The newspaper then filed an open-
records request on Oct. 6 for the current
policy and what the policy was in 2007.
The highway patrol had not responded
by deadline.
Mistakes uncovered by DNA
The 2009 National Academy of Sci-
ences study linked faulty forensics to
wrongful convictions.
“In some cases, substantive infor-
mation and testimony based on faulty
forensic science analyses may have
contributed to wrongful convictions of
innocent people.
“This fact has demonstrated the po-
tential danger of giving undue weight to
evidence and testimony derived from
imperfect testing and analysis.
“... Further improvements in forensic
science practices should reduce the oc-
currence of wrongful convictions,
which reduces the risk that true offend-
ers continue to commit crimes while in-
nocent persons inappropriately serve
time.”
DNA analysis has been used to high-
light the excesses and sometimes tragic
consequences of more unreliable foren-
sic methods.
For example, in 2002 the FBI used
DNA to reexamine 80 cases in which a
hair examiner determined that a defen-
dant’s hair was a match with collected
evidence.
In nine of those cases — 11 percent —
the DNA test showed the hair came
from someone other than the defen-
dant.
In 1980, a man named Santae Tribble
was wrongfully convicted at age 17 in
large part based on the testimony of an
FBI hair analyst who found a match “in
all microscopic characteristics.”
Tribble spent 28 years in prison and
was on parole when his attorney had the
13 hair samples re-tested using DNA
technology unavailable when Tribble
was convicted.
None of the 13 hairs belonged to Trib-
ble. One belonged to a dog.
The 2016 report concluded that bite-
mark forensics not only cannot match a
bite mark to an individual but cannot
reliably tell if a bite mark was made by a
human being.
Even fingerprint identification,
thought by many to be infallible, is not
always reliable.
Its subjective nature was brought to
the world’s attention when a fingerprint
was recovered at the scene of the 2004
bombing of a Madrid commuter train.
An FBI examiner concluded the finger-
print matched with “100 percent cer-
tainty” the prints of Brandon Mayfield,
a Portland, Oregon lawyer who is Mus-
lim.
Authorities held him for two weeks
as a “material witness.”
Spanish authorities were unable to
filings that the longtime investigator has
a “history and propensity” to “present
false and fabricated evidence and testi-
mony.”
9. The Missouri Attorney General’s
Office acknowledges the gunshot resid-
ue test was overlooked but says prosecu-
tors were unaware it existed; an attorney
for Nash blames the lack of disclosure on
prosecutors. Regardless, the state ar-
gues, other evidence was so strong Jen-
nings would still have been convicted.
10. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 7-8 in
Rolla to argue the case, after which a
judge will decide whether Jennings will
stay in prison, walk free or be granted
another trial.
confirm the fingerprint match. The FBI
realized it made a mistake.
According to the report, the error oc-
curred primarily because the FBI exam-
iner subjectively focused too much on
the similarities between the two prints
and less on the differences.
Authors of the 2016 study suggested
a requirement for fingerprint examiners
— that they complete and document
their analysis of the fingerprint found at
the scene before comparing it to the fin-
gerprint of the suspect.
Certified in blood spatter
At the Jennings trial, Detective Nash
told jurors he was certified in bloodstain
pattern analysis.
That was true at the time of the trial,
but he was not certified in 2007 when
the analysis was done.
Nash was certified in August 2008
after attending a one-week workshop.
He testified at the Jennings trial in Au-
gust 2009.
The News-Leader obtained some of
Nash’s training records through an
open records request.
Nash declined to speak to the News-
Leader, saying he was prohibited by
highway patrol policy. His attorney,
Timothy Davis of Branson, did so on
Oct. 1.
Davis told the newspaper it was not
just Nash at the highway patrol who
concluded the blood spatter on the
bathrobe was caused by a gunshot.
Sgt. Roger Renken, who performed
crime-scene investigations for the pa-
trol, did, as well, Davis said.
“Mr. Renken made his own interpre-
tation of the bloodstain patterns found
by the Missouri crime lab,” Davis said.
Renken wrote a report on March 1,
2007, which was entered as evidence in
Jennings’ 2009 trial, and concluded
that the fatal wound “was less likely self
inflicted and more likely inflicted by an
unknown person.”
But he also said his conclusion was
based on information from Nash about
the case.
Renken did not testify at trial. Nash
did; he talked at length about blood-
spatter patterns.
During the trial, Nash never stated
and was never asked what the rate of er-
ror is in concluding the atomized mist of
blood on Jennings’ bathrobe “must”
have come from a gunshot.
According to the 2009 study, that is a
major shortcoming in blood-spatter
analysis and other forensic sciences:
Error rates are not known.
It would require scientific testing
and the peer review of studies where
experts were asked to identify the
sources of various “atomized mists” of
blood — in which the cause of the stains
were various and already known.
The controversy of convictions
In a 1996 conviction in Texas, attor-
neys trying to free a man from prison ar-
gued that a blood-spatter expert was
wrong when he concluded that a stain
must have been caused by a gunshot to
the chest.
They argued that it could just as easi-
ly been the result of an attempt at CPR
on someone with a collapsed lung.
According to highway patrol records,
Nash was trained in blood-spatter
analysis by Tom Bevel, a former police
officer who worked 27 years with the
Oklahoma City Police Department. Bev-
el is president of Bevel, Gardner and As-
sociates Inc., a forensic education and
consulting company in Norman, Okla-
homa.
Bevel has a master’s degree from the
University of Central Oklahoma in the
administration of criminal justice and is
a graduate of the FBI National Academy
and a charter member of the FBI Scien-
tific Workgroup on Bloodstain Pattern
Analysis.
In addition, Bevel was the pivotal
witness in the 1996 conviction of War-
ren Horinek, a former Fort Worth police
officer, who was found guilty in Texas of
murdering his wife.
Continued on next page
 NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2017 ❚ 5A

Group protests death penalty outside sentencing

Giacomo Bologna Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
In a courtroom on the third floor of
the Greene County Justice Center, law-
yers laid out the cases for and against
killing Craig Wood.
On the sidewalk outside the build-
ing, several people holding signs
walked up and down along the street to
protest the death penalty.
Wood kidnapped, raped and killed
10-year-old Hailey Owens on Feb. 18,
2014, and prosecutors say the only just
punishment is the death penalty.
Donna Walmsley, one of the protes-
ters Friday, asked: What good does it do
to kill again?
“This public policy increases victim-
ization,” she said. “It continues the cy-
cle of violence.”
Walmsley said she and the other pro-
testers are part of the Springfield chap-
ter of Missourians for Alternatives to
the Death Penalty.
“We believe that it’s terrible public
policy,” she said.
Studies show, Walmsley said, that
er in April that she would like to avoid a
trial, and she asked Patterson to accept
the plea deal.
If Patterson had accepted the plea
deal, Walmsley said, he could have pre-
vented significant taxpayer expense. A
plea deal would have prevented the
costs of the trial, she said, which in-
cluded paying for bringing in a jury
from Platte County.
A death penalty conviction could
also result in years of appeals and more
court costs that will be shouldered by
taxpayers, Walmsley said.
After a four-day trial, a jury convict-
ed Wood of first-degree murder Thurs-
day. Wood’s sentencing hearing is ex-
pected to last several days.
Maureen Gray with Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty carries a Under Missouri law, there are several
sign in front of the Greene County Courthouse during the sentencing phase of aggravating factors a jury considers
the Craig Wood trial on Friday. ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER when determining if the death penalty
is appropriate, including whether the
murder was “outrageously or wantonly
the death penalty is much costlier to Prosecutor Dan Patterson last year say- vile, horrible or inhuman in that it in-
taxpayers than sentencing someone to ing Wood was willing to plead guilty volved torture, or depravity of mind.”
life in prison without parole. and spend the rest of his life in prison to Walmsley said she and others plan to
Wood’s attorney told the News- avoid the death penalty. protest every day of Wood’s sentenc-
Leader he sent a letter to Greene County Hailey’s mother told the News-Lead- ing.

Wood
Continued from Page 1A

“It’s different now,” Findley said.

The attorneys asked Findley about
Christian views on forgiveness and jus-
tice.
Findley said there is a difference be-
tween spiritual justice and social jus-
tice. He pointed to Romans Chapter 13 to
say that there is a distinction between
how forgiveness and redemption work
for God and what God has tasked the
government to do.

Craig Wood’s father still A text message received by Craig

feels compassion for son
Jim Wood said he and his wife, Genie,
have visited their son at the Greene
County Jail essentially every week over
the last three and a half years.
Jim Wood said he understands that
Craig Wood was convicted of killing
Hailey in February of 2014. He called the
crime “terrible” and “devastating,” but
he said he still has compassion for his
son.
“I think it is bigger than Genie and I,
frankly,” Jim Wood said. “Society has to
have compassion for their children no
matter what they have done.”
Jim Wood said Craig Wood grew up in
a loving home but never fully made the
transition to independent adulthood.
Craig Wood never had a lasting ro-
mantic relationship as an adult, accord-
ing to his father.
Jim Wood described Craig Wood as a
brilliant man who did not apply himself
at school.
Mother of Hailey’s friend
recalls Feb. 18, 2014
Hailey Owens was like a daughter to
Savanah Taylor, Taylor testified.
She is the mother of Mackenzie, the
girl Hailey was playing with on Feb. 18,
2014, the day she was abducted.
Hailey came over to her house about
every other day, Taylor said.
“She was an amazing little girl,” she
said.
Taylor recalled her last interaction
with Hailey. Hailey was playing on the
Jim Wood, the father of Craig Wood, testifies in court during the sentencing
phase of the Craig Wood trial on Friday. PHOTOS BY ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
trampoline with her daughter after
school, Taylor said, when Taylor’s hus-
band came home.
Taylor said she told Hailey she had to
go home so Taylor’s daughters could
clean their room before dinner.
Hailey left for her home, Taylor said.
Hours later, she was made aware of the
Amber Alert.
She made sure her daughters were
inside, Taylor said, then drove around
looking for Hailey but didn’t find her.
Taylor said she was back at home
when she learned that it was Hailey who
had been abducted.
“I fell to the floor and started crying,
and then I ran to my room and locked
the door,” Taylor said.
Taylor broke down in tears multiple
times during her testimony.
“I wish I wouldn’t have sent her
home,” Taylor said.
Dishman: Craig Wood
is still my friend
James Kenneth Dishman said it’s the
least he can do to call his friend Craig
Wood every week.
Dishman said he couldn’t believe it in
February 2014 when he first heard the
accusations that Wood had kidnapped,
raped and killed Hailey.
The two have known each other since
grade school, Dishman said. They were
in Scouts together, they played sports
together, they fished together, and they
partied together, he said.
After graduating from Marshfield
High School, Dishman said he and
Wood moved in together in an apart-
ment in the “big city” — Springfield.
“We were pretty much joined at the
hip,” Dishman said.
One night when Dishman was out of
town, there was a fire that started in an
adjacent apartment, he said.
According to Dishman, when Wood
woke up and saw flames, he ran upstairs
to warn the neighbors.
Wood then went to the apartment
where the fire started, kicked in the door
and carried out the old man from inside,
Dishman said, saving his life.
Dishman said that when Wood was a
senior in high school, Wood started dat-
ing a freshman. When the girl went to
college, they broke up, Dishman said.
Since then, Wood has had “one-night
flings” and dated from time to time,
Wood from a friend was shown in court
during the sentencing phase of Wood’s
trial on Friday.
Dishman said, but never had a steady
girlfriend.
When asked if he thought that was
strange, Dishman said no, adding that
he himself has never married and
doesn’t consider himself strange.
Throughout their 20s, Dishman said
he and Wood drank beer and sometimes
did drugs — mostly marijuana, occa-
sionally meth, acid or mushrooms.
Once they hit 30, Dishman said, they
slowed down on doing drugs and only
did meth two or three times since then,
though they still kept drinking.
“We like our beer,” Dishman said,
then turned to the jury. “I mean, come
on, it’s beer.”
When asked if Wood was unhappy or
depressed, Dishman said yes, and that
he and Wood would cheer each other up.
“That’s what friends do,” he said.
Dishman said he currently owns a
few funeral homes.
At the time of Hailey’s abduction,
Dishman said he would see Wood every
two weeks or so.
Now, Dishman said he calls Wood
once a week and they speak about half
an hour. He said it costs him about $60 a
month.
Dishman said regardless of the jury’s
decision, he will continue to call his
friend each week.
“I’ve always been taught to hate the
sin, love the sinner,” Dishman said.

Mother
Continued from Page 1A
The jury, which traveled to Spring-
field from Platte County, convicted
Wood of first-degree murder on
Thursday.
On Friday, the penalty phase of the
trial began. After opening statements,
prosecutors called several of Hailey’s
family members to the stand in addition
to the girl’s fourth-grade teacher.
Herman skipped that testimony. She
said she feared it would be too difficult
for her to sit through.
In the afternoon, Herman was in the
courtroom as the defense began calling
witnesses, including Wood’s father and
a close friend.
The penalty phase of the trial will
continue Saturday and is expected to
wrap up early next week.
Herman said she is looking forward
to not being in court anymore. She said
she wants to honor Hailey’s memory
throughout her life, but she also has to
move forward.
“I am not going to forget about her,”
Herman said. “I want to keep her memo-
ry alive.”

Continued from previous page
Horinek said he was innocent and
told police his wife killed herself. She
died from a gunshot to the chest.
According to a 2010 article in the Tex-
as Observer, Horinek said the flecks of
his wife’s blood found on his white T-
shirt came from chest compressions he
administered doing CPR while trying to
save her life.
Like in the Jennings case, the couple
had been drinking. Horinek had
downed at least 11 Coors Lights and he
sounded intoxicated when he called 911.
On the tape, he can be heard applying
CPR.
The police, medical examiner and
prosecutor believed he was innocent for
various reasons.
Horinek initially was not charged, ac-
A blood-spatter analysis by the
Missouri State Highway Patrol led to
the conviction of Brad Jennings in
2009. FROM THE CASE FILE
cording to the Texas Observer story.
The parents of Horinek’s wife were
convinced she would not have killed
herself, in part because she was a suc-
cessful attorney with a budding career.
They used a little known Texas law that
allows private citizens to bring evidence
to a grand jury.
They did that and Horinek was in-
dicted.
The local prosecutor refused to pur-
sue the case, so the judge ordered two
private attorneys to act as special prose-
cutors. The dead woman’s parents hired
Bevel.
In a bizarre role reversal, the regular
prosecutor, the police investigator and
the medical examiner testified for the
defendant.
According to the Texas Observer,
Bevel testified — as Nash did at Jen-
nings’ trial — that the specks of blood
must have come from a “high velocity
occurrence” such as a gunshot.
Jurors believed Bevel; Horinek was
sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Jim Varnon, one of the officers who
responded that night, was convinced an
innocent man went to prison because of
a misinterpreted blood stain that car-
ried far too much weight.
Varnon enlisted the help of two
blood-spatter analysts who signed affi-
davits that CPR on someone with a col-
lapsed lung — due to a gunshot — could
also have caused the misty blood on the
T-shirt. One of the analysts had been
Bevel’s teacher.
At the appeals hearing, the jury fore-
man said he and fellow jurors were in-
clined to find Horinek not guilty — until
they heard from Bevel.
The appeal failed.
Horinek remains in prison, according
to Dave Mann, who wrote the story and
is now with Texas Monthly.
 MSU defeats
SIU for 2nd
straight win The News-Leader is celebrating its 150th
anniversary. See historic pages and a
historic masthead every Saturday.

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

CRAIG WOOD’S SENTENCING — DAY 2

Friends, family take stand

Harrison Keegan and Giacomo Bologna
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
The penalty phase of the Craig Wood
trial continued Saturday at the Greene
County Courthouse.
A jury convicted Wood of first-degree
murder Thursday for the February 2014
abduction and killing of Springfield 10-
year-old Hailey Owens.
Now, jurors are hearing evidence for
and against the death penalty.
On Saturday, Wood’s defense attor-
neys called several witnesses to the
stand. Here are three big moments.
Wood’s mother takes the stand
Craig Wood’s mother, Genie Wood,
testified Saturday morning.
Genie Wood talked about raising
Craig Wood and her son’s love for coach-
ing football and spending time with the
animals on her farm.
Genie Wood said it was heartbreaking
to learn that Craig Wood was accused of
killing Hailey in February 2014, but she
still loves her son. Genie Wood, the mother of Craig
“He’s been loving and I love him,” Ge- Wood, testifies Saturday during the
nie Wood said. “I don’t know what else to sentencing phase of Wood’s murder
trial. She said she speaks with her son
See WOOD, Page 8A almost daily. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER

CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS

DEFENSE MADE NO
OPENING STATEMENT
The News-Leader’s five-day series, Convicted By Blood, continues through Monday. Coming tomorrow: Missing evidence is key to a last-chance hearing for Brad Jennings.
To read previous installments, go online to News-Leader.com/ConvictedByBlood.

Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader

USA TODAY NETWORK
A
s Brad Jennings’ trial be-
gan, his sister’s heart
sank when the defense
lawyer declined to give
an opening statement — a linch-
pin in a criminal defense.
Attorney Darrell Deputy re-
served the right to make one later.
He never did.
Jennings, who would be con-
victed and sent to prison, later al-
leged that Deputy was incompe-
tent, which led to the guilty ver-
dict. But an appellate court dis-
agreed.
“He did not prepare,” said Mar-
sha Iler, the only sibling of Jen-
nings, who was charged with
murdering his wife on Christmas
Day 2006. Iler attended the trial.
She said she suspected early
on that her brother’s attorney was
not ready.
“I was just sick because I felt
like that he was ignoring the fact
that we were going to trial,” she
said. “And I felt like he was wasn’t
preparing to go to trial, and I
made the statement one time,
you know, don’t you need to pre-
pare like it’s going to trial?”
Jurors never
knew Lisa
attempted
suicide in
high school
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
A Dallas County jury decided in
2009 that Lisa Jennings, 39, did
not commit suicide — and, in-
stead, was murdered by her hus-
band — without hearing a word
about her prior suicide attempt, or
The News-Leader reviewed the five-volume, 915-page trial transcript. STEVE POKIN/NEWS-LEADER that her father took his own life.
Darrell Deputy Jr., now 75
years old and retired, represented
Brad Jennings at trial. He declined
About this series to discuss why he did not bring up
the suicide history in court.
The stories in this series are based substantially on court documents. A copy of the prose- Not only did Deputy fail to
cution’s case file — as handed over by prosecutors to defense lawyers — was given by defense mention this at trial, according to
lawyers to McNiel, a private investigator working for the defense. ❚ McNiel, in turn, released it Jennings’ new lawyer, but the
to the News-Leader. ❚ The newspaper independently requested the case file from the Missouri state’s star witness in the case,
State Highway Patrol through the state’s open records law. The patrol denied the request on Sgt. Dan Nash, never considered
the grounds that an appeal is pending. ❚ In addition, the newspaper reviewed the 915-page the suicide history in coming to
transcript of the trial of Brad Jennings; the 225-page transcript of the appeal of Jennings’ the conclusion Lisa Jennings’
conviction; and conducted multiple interviews with family members, attorneys and others. death was a murder.

See JENNINGS, Page 4A More inside 10 key points in the Brad Jennings case, Page 4A See ATTEMPT, Page 5A

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4A ❚ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2017 ❚ SUNDAY NEWS-LEADER
10 key points in the Brad Jennings case
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
1. Lisa Jennings died of a gunshot
wound on Christmas Day 2006, in the
bedroom of her Buffalo home. Who
pulled the trigger is in dispute: Authori-
ties initially concluded she killed herself;
the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and
later a jury, decided she was killed by her
husband, Brad Jennings.
2. The patrol detective, Sgt. Dan Nash,
studied photos of blood spatter at the
scene and focused on a photo of Lisa
Jennings’ right hand; it had a single
blood drop on it. Nash thought there
should be more if Lisa Jennings shot her-
Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
She contends her brother had the
worst possible defense: one so feeble it
ensured his conviction, but just compe-
tent enough to prevent the conviction
from being overturned for ineffective
assistance of counsel.
A Dallas County jury took only 21⁄2
hours to convict Jennings on Aug. 19,
2009.
He was sentenced to 25 years in pris-
on.
Deputy, now 75 and retired, defends
his work.
“We were prepared,” he said.
He declined to discuss specific ques-
tions about the case and, instead, point-
ed to an appellate court decision that re-
jected a motion to vacate the conviction
based on ineffective assistance of coun-
sel.
The court’s decision stated: “Jen-
nings has not shown that the motion
court clearly erred or that any point on
appeal has merit.”
Deputy told the News-Leader, “If this
is just about the things I did not do — I
am relying upon what the court said
about what I did.
“If for some reason this is all about
me being the bad guy — I know what I
did. I know what the court said.”
Appellate courts put great weight on
a jury’s findings. They do not consider,
for example, strategies the defense
could have taken, but did not.
The court in this case wrote, “We
summarize the evidence as we must
view it, focusing only on evidence and
inferences tending to show the defen-
dant’s guilt, and ignoring all that might
suggest his innocence.
“By rule, we determine only whether
the motion court’s findings and conclu-
sions are clearly erroneous.”
To understand the trial of Brad Jen-
nings, the News-Leader reviewed the
915-page transcript, as well as other
court documents.
The review was done, in part, be-
cause the state is now arguing that even
though a key piece of evidence that was
favorable to Jennings was not disclosed
to the defense, the case against him was
so strong that he would have been con-
victed regardless.
Couple had a rocky marriage
Jennings was arrested near his Buffa-
lo home in 2007. He was charged with
killing his wife in the early hours of
Christmas Day 2006.
The day Jennings was arrested, he
called Deputy. Jennings had hired the
lawyer earlier that year when a Missouri
State Highway Patrol detective asked
Jennings to take a polygraph test.
Jennings took the test and passed it,
Iler said.
The News-Leader filed a request un-
der the state’s open records law seeking
the results of that polygraph test, as well
as the rest of the patrol’s investigative
file. The patrol declined the request, ar-
guing the case is still being contested.
Iler said her brother hired Deputy be-
cause he had heard good things about
the lawyer in the Buffalo community.
Deputy’s office is in Lebanon.
The three-day trial was in the Buffalo
courtroom of Circuit Judge John W.
Sims, now retired. He declined to dis-
cuss the case.
Jennings was convicted primarily on
the testimony of lead investigator Sgt.
Dan Nash of the Highway Patrol.
Over the first three days, the state
presented 18 consecutive witnesses —
five of them from the patrol.
Five other witnesses — friends and
co-workers of Lisa Jennings — were
called to establish motive.
They told jurors Lisa and Brad had a
rocky marriage and that Lisa had talked
for years about leaving him and was fi-
nally ready to do it before she died.
Nash told jurors he reconstructed the
crime scene using dozens of photo-
graphs and measurements. He conclud-
ed Lisa Jennings did not take her own
life but was shot by her husband.
self.
3. Nash also found microscopic blood
on the bathrobe Brad Jennings wore that
night. Brad Jennings said it was from
holding his wife’s bloody body. Nash
concluded the blood must have come
from Brad Jennings shooting his wife.
4. Jennings was convicted of murder
in August 2009 and sentenced to
25 years in prison. His sister, Marsha Iler,
has spent approximately $200,000 try-
ing to prove his innocence.
5. In 2012, she hired investigator J.
Dwight McNiel, one-time sheriff of
Christian County. McNiel recommended
she try to locate a gunshot residue test —
unmentioned at trial or in the patrol’s re-
Brad Jennings was arrested in 2007
and has been in prison since 2009.
MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
Nash based his conclusion primarily
on new blood-spatter evidence that he
had the Highway Patrol gather and in-
terpret.
At trial, Nash explained to jurors
what blood-spatter analysis is.
“(It) is just the interpretation of indi-
vidual blood stains. We know through
the study of blood that it’s going to do
specific things, unless it’s acted upon,
and when it (encounters) other forces.
“... A blood-stain pattern interpreta-
tion can tell us a lot about the scene. It
can tell us what type of weapon was
used, whether it was a handgun, wheth-
er it was some type of a knife or a ball
bat, or a club.”
Nash hammered away on the fact
that — according to photos — there was
only a single drop of blood on Lisa Jen-
nings’ right hand. He told jurors there
should have been more.
If she had taken her own life, he said,
there would have been “blow-back.”
“Blow-back occurs when there is a
contact or a loose contact wound. And
what I mean by that is if I take a hand-
gun and I push it up to the side of my
skull, where the barrel of the gun is hav-
ing contact with my skin and my skull.
And when that weapon is fired there are
gases that are put out that cause that
projectile to go down the barrel and then
out the gun.”
The gases follow the bullet down the
barrel and into the wound, Nash said.
They expand and come back toward the
gun carrying blood and other tissue.
“You’ll see that there was a large
amount of blow-back effect to the right
side of her skull ... all the way down the
wall about four feet,” he told jurors.
“But yet, there’s nothing on her hand,
except this one little droplet. That’s it.
When her hand should be covered, and
her arm and wrist should be covered
with all this stuff from this blow-back
effect.”
The gun was partially covered in Lisa
Jennings’ blood, but there was only one
drop on her hand.
“I believed that we could rule out a
suicide,” Nash said.
Evidence, and lack thereof
Nash told jurors the blood-spatter
pattern found on Jennings’ bathrobe
must have come from a gunshot and not
from Jennings holding his wife’s bloody
body before he called 911 that night.
That would have created a “transfer
stain,” Nash said.
Instead, he told jurors, there was a
different type of stain on the bathrobe; it
was “atomized blood” that must have
come from a high-velocity gunshot
wound.
Jennings had voluntarily given the
robe to Nash for testing several weeks
after his wife’s death. He had not
washed it.
Nash told jurors:
“The only thing that we could find on
the robe was this atomized, this misting
effect which is commonly associated
with a handgun or a weapon of some
kind.”
A different Highway Patrol expert,
Sgt. Roger Renken, looked at the blood
spatter in the photos and came to the
same conclusion.
But Renken, who did not testify, said
in his report that he also took into ac-
count information from Nash on the
case.
The state’s case also relied on the tes-
timony of Nicholas Gerhardt, a Highway
Patrol employee who works in the trace
evidence section.
ports — conducted on Brad Jennings’
robe.
6. In 2015, an attorney hired by Iler
discovered the Highway Patrol did, in
fact, test the unwashed, blood-stained
bathrobe for gunshot residue. The re-
sults were negative, casting doubt on the
prosecution’s argument that Brad Jen-
nings pulled the trigger.
7. Based on that alleged suppression
of evidence, known as a Brady violation,
Brad Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey, filed a writ of habeas corpus
asking that his client be released or
granted a new trial.
8. Ramsey also has taken aim at the
patrol detective, Nash, alleging in court
Gerhardt explained why it was pos-
sible for Brad Jennings to shoot his wife
at close range and not have gunshot re-
sidue on his hands.
Tests showed there was gunshot re-
sidue only on Lisa Jennings’ right hand,
her dominant hand, which in large part
is why the death was initially ruled a su-
icide by the Dallas County coroner.
A gunshot residue test is used by law
enforcement to determine if someone is
likely to have recently fired a gun.
Gerhardt told jurors Lisa Jennings
could have gotten the gunshot residue
on her right hand simply by being near
her husband when he fired the gun in
the enclosed space of the master-bed-
room closet. Her body was found partly
in the closet.
Prosecutor Kevin Zoellner asked Ger-
hardt this: If someone washes their
hands, or in some way cleans up after
handling a firearm, will that eliminate
the gunshot residue?
Gerhard said yes.
Throughout the trial, Zoellner sug-
gested to jurors that after Jennings shot
and killed his wife — while wearing the
black bathrobe — he then washed his
hands to remove the blood, blow-back
and gunshot residue.
No evidence was presented that Jen-
nings had washed his hands, but it was
part of the state’s theory of what hap-
pened and what the prosecutor called a
“reasonable inference” from other evi-
dence.
The closest any testimony came to al-
leging Jennings washed his hands was
from Laci Deckard, Lisa’s daughter from
a prior marriage.
She told jurors that when she left the
house Jennings was wearing the black
bathrobe and his hair looked like he had
just gotten out of bed.
But when Deckard returned — after
being told her mother was dead — she
testified that Jennings had changed into
jeans and a shirt and looked like he had
cleaned up and combed his hair.
Brad Jennings did not testify at trial.
Defense calls one witness
Once the prosecution rested, Deputy
presented his case. It consisted of one
witness — a sister-in-law of Jennings
whose most important testimony was
that Jennings is right-handed.
Deputy thought this was significant
because a Highway Patrol examination
of Jennings’ bathrobe, which he was
wearing when Lisa was shot, showed no
bloodstains on the right sleeve.
Presumably, there should have been
bloodstains on the right sleeve if Jen-
nings had shot his wife using his domi-
nant hand.
Deputy never called his own foren-
sics expert to dispute Nash’s blood-
spatter conclusions.
In recent years, the entire field of
blood-spatter analysis has been heavily
criticized for not having much science
behind it.
In 2009, a National Academy of Sci-
ences comprehensive study of forensic
sciences was critical of the reliability of
blood-spatter analysis.
No one ever asked at Jennings’ trial,
for example: How long did it take for Li-
sa Jennings’ hand — positioned be-
tween her head and the wall — to drop
out of the path of blow-back due to her
death or the gun’s recoil?
No one asked what the margin of er-
ror was in concluding the blood-spatter
pattern found on the robe must have
come from a gunshot wound and no oth-
er source.
According to the study, a major prob-
lem with blood-spatter analysis is that
no one knows what that margin is.
At trial, Nash’s blood-spatter inter-
pretations went unchallenged.
No motions, subpoenas or expert
After her brother was convicted, Iler
hired Springfield attorneys Dee Wam-
pler and Jason Coatney to file a motion
to vacate the conviction due to ineffec-
tive assistance of counsel.
The News-Leader reviewed Wam-
pler’s unsuccessful post-conviction ap-
peal, including the 225-page transcript
filings that the longtime investigator has
a “history and propensity” to “present
false and fabricated evidence and testi-
mony.”
9. The Missouri Attorney General’s
Office acknowledges the gunshot resid-
ue test was overlooked but says prosecu-
tors were unaware it existed; an attorney
for Nash blames the lack of disclosure on
prosecutors. Regardless, the state ar-
gues, other evidence was so strong Jen-
nings would still have been convicted.
10. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 7-8 in
Rolla to argue the case, after which a
judge will decide whether Jennings will
stay in prison, walk free or be granted
another trial.
of an Oct. 7, 2011, hearing
where Brad Jennings and
Darrell Deputy testified
before Judge Sims.
Jennings said at the
hearing that he did not
Dee have a fair trial because
Wampler Deputy did such a poor
job.
“I wouldn’t have been found guilty,”
he said. “I did not shoot my wife.”
Jennings also testified that Deputy
asked him for funds so he could depose
witnesses. Jennings said he provided
the money, but Deputy never deposed
anyone.
In addition, Jennings said, Deputy,
who handled about 25 murder cases in
his career, repeatedly told him the case
would never go to trial.
“He just more or less told me that
there was no evidence and we didn’t
have to worry about it.”
Sims rejected the appeal, so Wampler
tried again — this time to the Missouri
Court of Appeals, Southern District, Di-
vision Two — citing a litany of alleged
failings by Deputy.
Wampler focused on the lack of an
opening statement at trial.
Unlike Deputy, the state prosecutor
gave an opening statement, laying out
his theory of why the evidence would
show Jennings killed his wife of 18 years.
Wampler argued that not presenting
an opening statement was a major blun-
der by Deputy.
National figures show that 75 to 80
percent of all jurors nationwide make up
their minds at the end of the opening
statements and do not switch or vary
from their belief during the course of a
trial, Wampler argued in a court filing.
“The general rule is that if the defen-
dant can raise some sort of reasonable
doubt and question the state’s evidence
in the opening statement, at least you
have the jury thinking during all the tes-
timony that, in fact, there is another side
to the evidence,” he told the News-Lead-
er.
Wampler also criticized Deputy for
not having Jennings testify.
“Defendant had no prior criminal rec-
ord and a large number of good charac-
ter witnesses could have been called
and were available without subpoena
but Deputy recommended against al-
lowing defendant to take the witness
stand.”
At the October 2011 hearing, Deputy
said: “I didn’t have any doubt about him
testifying, I thought he would need to do
it.”
Nevertheless, Deputy did not call him
to the stand even though Jennings was
willing to do so.
Deputy either did not know or failed
to bring into evidence that Lisa Jen-
nings had attempted suicide before, or
that her biological father had killed him-
self.
At trial, according to court records,
Deputy made few objections.
He was mute, for example, when the
prosecutor asked a witness in front of
the jury: “And you understand that she
was killed on Christmas Day ...”
Zoellner, the prosecutor, is an assis-
tant attorney general in the Missouri At-
torney General’s Office.
Wayne K. Rieschel, the Dallas County
prosecuting attorney at the time, with-
drew because of a conflict of interest. He
told the News-Leader he attended the
same church as several of Jennings’ rel-
atives.
Deputy made no objection when
Zoellner asked a different witness in
front of the jury: “Now with respect to
the murder and death of Lisa Jennings,
did you ...”
Deputy made no objection when a ju-
ror dozed off during trial, according to
court filings.
Wampler, in those same court filings,
also criticized Deputy for the following:
❚ He filed no motions for discovery.
❚ He took no depositions of any of
the state’s witnesses. A deposition is a
witness’s sworn out-of-court testimo-
ny. It is used to gather information in the
discovery process to find out what the
other side will say at trial.
Continued on next page

What’s up with the caboose on a hill?
The Answer Man
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Hey Steve! I ride my motorcycle on
Highway 125 and near the intersection
of Landslide, I noticed a caboose up on
a hill. What’s up with that? — David
Warnke
To my great surprise, David, the story
of the Caboose on the Hill involves Si Si-
man and Ralph Foster — who created
the “Ozark Jubilee” TV show in the
1950s — as well as Lester Cox and Willie
Nelson.
Nelson at one time lived in the ca-
boose, says Mike Cunningham, who
owns the caboose, the
nearby house and the
surrounding 600 acres
near Rogersville.
“That’s what I’ve been
told,” he tells me.
Cunningham, 70, is a
Michael Republican state senator
Cunningham who once owned Cun-
ningham Fresh Foods, a
supermarket in Marshfield that is now a
Price Cutter.
I figure the story might be true, since
Willie decades ago worked at Aunt Mar-
tha’s Pancake House in Springfield,
which closed in 2015.
I tried to reach Willie via phone. I
contacted Elaine Schock, his publicist,
and asked if he had ever lived in the ca-
boose.
Attempt
Continued from Page 1A
Attorney Robert Ramsey said in a
court filing that Nash, the Missouri State
Highway Patrol detective, knew of the
suicide history and ignored it.
“In fact, (Dallas County) Deputy
Sheriff Scott Rice, who knew the de-
ceased since high school, had specifical-
ly told Nash prior to the preparation of
the probable cause report that there was
in fact a history of suicide in the de-
ceased’s family,” Ramsey wrote in court
documents.
“Not only had her father committed
suicide, but she had actually attempted
suicide herself during high school. Nev-
ertheless, Nash deliberately omitted this
crucial information from his probable
cause statement and presented this
false version of the facts to the court and
the jury.”
In September, Ramsey took deposi-
tions from Nash and Rice, who is now
the Dallas County sheriff. Parts of those
depositions are included in a recent mo-
tion Ramsey filed.
Both men were asked if Rice told
Nash about Lisa Jennings’ suicide at-
tempt and her biological father’s suicide.
Nash reportedly said: “I am not aware
of any past suicide attempts or threats.”
Rice reportedly said: “He (Nash) had
some type of form there and he said
there was no history — family history of
suicide. I said, ‘Well, that’s not true. Her
father — her real father in Kansas had
killed himself. And she had attempted it
back in our senior year in high school or
that summer.’”
Nash’s probable cause statement —
used to bring charges against Jennings
— makes only a brief reference to sui-
cide.
It states: “During a crime scene re-
Continued from previous page
❚ He issued no subpoenas.
❚ He did not hire a criminologist to
assist in investigating the case.
❚ He filed no pretrial motions.
❚ He did not visit the crime scene.
❚ Two children were in the home
when Lisa Jennings died, and Deputy
failed to interview either one.
❚ Deputy failed to object when Sgt.
Mike Rogers with the Highway Patrol
testified in front of jurors that because
Lisa Jennings had a lot of clothing and
accessories, she was a happy woman
and therefore would not have killed her-
self.
❚ Deputy received no curriculum vi-
taes or resumes from any of the state’s
expert witnesses and failed to challenge
their status as forensic experts.
In particular, Wampler argued, Dep-
uty failed to challenge Nash’s expertise.
“Sgt. Daniel Nash, MSHP, was not
identified as an ‘expert’ but was allowed
to study photographs, formulate a crime
scene reconstruction solely based on
photographs and testify as to the causal
events without objections.”
According to court documents, Dep-
uty told Wampler that he had planned to
call his own expert witness, but the wit-
Willie Nelson once lived here, or so the story goes. STEVE POKIN/NEWS-LEADER
She responded via email: “Willie is on
a break and not available. I cannot verify
this story.”
Cunningham bought the place in
2001. The caboose, which was built in
1910 for the Frisco Railway, was already
atop the hill. It’s been in its current loca-
tion since the 1960s, he says.
Back then, the property was used as a
hunting preserve — mostly quail — and
was over 1,800 acres.
It was owned by Si Siman, a key fig-
ure behind the creation of the “Ozark Ju-
bilee,” the first network television series
to feature America’s top country music
stars. It was broadcast from Springfield
in the 1950s. Siman died in 1994.
Siman eventually sold the property
to Ralph Foster, who also was involved
the creation of the “Ozark Jubilee.”
Lisa and Brad Jennings were married
18 years when Lisa died from a
gunshot wound to the head in 2006.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
construction, it was discovered that the
physical evidence was not consistent
with suicide, but rather more consistent
with someone else shooting Lisa Jen-
nings.”
Nash declined to speak to the News-
Leader, saying he is prohibited from do-
ing so by Highway Patrol policy.
His attorney, Timothy Davis of Bran-
son, spoke to the News-Leader on Oct. 1.
Davis was asked if Nash knew about
the suicide history.
“Dan and I did not talk about that,”
Davis said.
Defense attorney Ramsey believes Li-
sa Jennings’ prior suicide attempt and
her father’s suicide are significant.
An attempt and a family history are
two of the biggest risk factors for sui-
cide, according to the National Institute
of Mental Health.
Rice told the News-Leader he dated
Lisa Jennings — then Lisa Sample —
twice while they attended Buffalo High
School.
He said Lisa attempted suicide.
“Everybody knew it at the time,” he
said.
Family members also confirmed the
attempt.
Lisa’s older sister, Shannon Bryan,
ness backed out after concluding he
could not refute the state’s blood-spat-
ter evidence.
Wampler wrote: “Dr. (Edward) Frie-
dlander had driven from Kansas City to
Buffalo on the third day of trial and un-
explainably (sic) had changed his mind
or opinion and Deputy decided not to
call him as a witness at the last mo-
ment.”
But Wampler also noted that Deputy
“had no correspondence or any notes
whatsoever concerning any conversa-
tions” with this expert witness.
At the October 2011 post-conviction
hearing, Deputy testified that Friedlan-
der arrived, as planned, on the third day
of the trial: “He stated that he couldn’t
help us. ... His position was that after he
looked at the evidence, and had gone
through it again, and looked at every-
thing, he thought that Mr. Jennings was
guilty.
“I was surprised.”
Wampler responded that a defense
attorney in the middle of a murder trial
should never be in a position to be that
surprised.
Friedlander now works in Mississip-
pi. The News-Leader left phone and
email messages for him. He did not re-
spond.
NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2017 ❚ 5A
Foster, who died in 1984, owned the
KWTO radio station, which was a step-
pingstone for many country artists.
One day, so the story goes, Foster was
on the property hunting with Lester
Cox, the namesake of CoxHealth and
Cox Hospital. Cox was chairman of the
board of the Burge-Protestant Hospital
from 1948 to 1968, when he died.
Foster and Cox were with a third man,
a bigwig with the Frisco Railway, Cun-
ningham tells me. This was before the
caboose was on the property and before
there was a house there. The only lodg-
ing was rough; it was a trailer shack for
the hunters.
Well, the Frisco bigwig accidentally
shot off the hat of one of the men. Cun-
ningham does not know if it was Fos-
ter’s hat or Cox’s hat.
declined to speak directly to the News-
Leader because of a family rift over the
case. But her husband, Paul Bryan,
spoke to the newspaper after talking to
her.
“Lisa had told her (Shannon) that she
tried,” he said of the suicide attempt.
“She took some pills and just woke up
with a headache.”
In addition, Paul and Shannon Bryan
were told years ago that the sisters’ bio-
logical father — whom the women had
not seen in years — had committed sui-
cide. The sisters and their brother were
raised by a different man.
The News-Leader acquired a copy of
the death certificate of Daniel Kempton,
their biological father.
The document states he killed him-
self on May 26, 1996, at age 55, by lying
down on the Santa Fe railroad tracks
near El Dorado, Kansas. He was struck
by a train.
Defense attorney Deputy did not
bring this up at Jennings’ trial.
Neither was Rice called to testify —
despite the fact that court records indi-
cate he was willing to take the stand on
Jennings’ behalf.
Deputy also failed to object when the
prosecutor and a key Highway Patrol
witness made what appear to be inaccu-
rate statements about suicide.
These statements, according to court
filings from Ramsey, indicate “that the
Missouri Highway Patrol in testimony
used incorrect stereotypes about wom-
en and suicide and that the misinforma-
tion used may indicate an ‘institutional
problem with the Missouri State Troop-
ers.’”
According to the trial transcript, Sgt.
Mike Rogers of the Highway Patrol ex-
pressed his opinions on suicide while
testifying about a conversation he had
with Brad Jennings.
“When he (Jennings) made the state-
ment, well, that it had to be a suicide, I
At the post-conviction hearing,
Wampler criticized Deputy for not call-
ing Scott Rice as a witness.
Rice was a Dallas County sheriff ’s
deputy who went to the Jennings’ home
on the night of Lisa’s death and is now
Dallas County sheriff. That night, Rice
administered the gunshot residue tests.
According to Wampler: “Scott Rice
had told the defendant that he would
testify favorably for the defendant but
Deputy failed to call Scott Rice as a wit-
ness.”
Rice’s testimony could have been vi-
tal.
First, he knew Lisa Jennings had
tried to kill herself in high school. He
had dated her when they both attended
Buffalo High School.
Second, according to the trial tran-
script, Mike Rackley, then the Dallas
County sheriff, testified under cross-ex-
amination about a report compiled by
Rice.
Rackley said Rice had talked to Brad
Jennings outside the house on the night
of Lisa’s death. This was after police and
medical personnel had arrived.
Rackley told jurors that Rice said he
saw blood on Jennings’ hands.
At the October 2011 hearing, Rice tes-
tified: “I observed dried blood on his fin-
In return, he felt obliged to improve
the lodging and sent over the caboose.
As you might suspect, a caboose is
harder to move when it’s not on tracks.
Cunningham has been told it arrived
on a flatbed that needed to be pulled up
the hill by a couple of bulldozers. A crane
lifted the caboose off the flatbed and set
it on a span of tracks only a few feet
longer than the caboose itself.
Cunningham lives in the nearby
house with six dogs, about a dozen hors-
es, a cat and two donkeys who “like to
stand on the porch and greet people.”
I ask if I can go inside the caboose.
He warns me that the interior is a
mess, and wasps call the place home.
Inside, there are two small beds, no
wasps, a potbellied stove and an air-
plane-sized bathroom with a metal toi-
let and metal sink that at one time fold-
ed out from the wall.
There is an upper perch with win-
dows and seating for four.
A couple of years ago, Cunningham
replaced the exterior siding.
He plans to clean up and renovate the
interior, as well.
“I plan to make it into a bed and
breakfast,” he tells me.
I’m not sure, so I ask: “Seriously?”
No, he was kidding, he tells me.
“But the view is pretty good,” he adds.
Keep those questions coming. Send
them to The Answer Man at 836-1253,
spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @ste-
vepokinNL or by mail at 651 N. Boonville,
Springfield, MO 65806.
said well, from her actions and from the
items that we have found, it appears that
she is certainly not a woman who would
want to take her own life,” Rogers said in
front of jurors.
“Because she had lots of clothing, lots
of accessories. And obviously she — at
least to me, it appeared that she spent a
lot of money on clothing and items. You
know, that a woman would have.”
In his closing argument, prosecutor
Kevin Zoellner, an assistant attorney
general in the Missouri Attorney Gener-
al’s office, mentioned that Lisa Jennings
had cosmetic surgery just prior to her
death.
“You don’t have cosmetic surgery
done when you’re planning on ending
your life,” Zoellner told jurors. “You have
it done because you want to look better,
feel better.”
The News-Leader forwarded those
comments to the American Association
for Suicidology. Board member Skip
Simpson, a Texas attorney, responded
via email.
“Only expert witnesses can opine
about suicide,” Simpson wrote. “Sgt.
Rogers does not qualify as an expert.
(Defense attorney) Deputy should have
been on top of objecting to the line of
questioning and answers from Rogers.”
“The comment about cosmetic sur-
gery is nonsense,” Simpson wrote.
It is a myth that those who make
plans for the future don’t commit sui-
cide, he said.
“Virtually everyone who desires
death also simultaneously desires life,”
Simpson wrote. “Someone can get cos-
metic surgery hoping it will fix their bad
image of themselves, make their spouse
love them more, and on and on.
“... People often make plans for jobs,
trips, and relationships in the days and
weeks before their deaths by suicide. It
would be surprising if they didn’t. Of
course they do.”
gernails. Well, it was on both hands.”
This would mean that, contrary to the
prosecutor’s supposition that Jennings
had washed his hands — cleaning them
of gunshot residue — a reasonable infer-
ence could be made by Deputy that Jen-
nings had not washed his hands and the
reason there was no gunshot residue on
them was because he had not fired a gun.
During Deputy’s closing argument —
the only time Deputy spoke directly to
jurors — he did not mention this.
Despite his apparent failings, Deputy
raised an important question in his
closing argument. It involved the test-
ing of Jennings’ bathrobe for blood.
He asked: Why didn’t the Highway
Patrol also test the bathrobe for gunshot
residue?
“I would have gone out and got the
black robe,” Deputy told jurors. “... I
would have done a gunshot residue test
on that black robe.
“... Now the State of Missouri had
that robe for two years. No tests. Why?
“... They could have substantiated
whether there was any gunshot residue
on that robe or not. And they didn’t do it.
It was not done.”
As it turns out, such a test was done.
It just wasn’t shared with Jennings’ de-
fense lawyer.
 GUNMAN HITS CHURCH
Officials say at least 26 killed, including children,
another 10 injured in small Texas town
See story, Page 1B
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER.COM
CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS
‘SMOKING GUN’
MISSING EVIDENCE OFFERS
LAST CHANCE FOR JENNINGS
The News-Leader’s series, Convicted By Blood, will continue with coverage of Brad Jennings’ hearing in Rolla tomorrow.
To follow the story or read previous installments, go online to News-Leader.com/ConvictedByBlood.
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
A
ttorney Lindsey Phoenix suspect-
ed that highway patrol investiga-
tors had not played fair in the
2009 murder trial of Brad Jennings.
As a result, she was careful not to tip
them off by writing a letter explicitly
stating what she was really after — the
results of a gunshot residue test she be-
lieved was done on the bathrobe Jen-
nings wore the night his wife died.
“I was concerned that if I let them
know what I was looking for that it might
not be there,” she told the News-Leader.
Instead, Phoenix — one of a series of
attorneys hired to prove Jennings’ inno-
cence — asked the highway patrol if she
could see all the evidence and exhibits
used to convict Jennings of murdering
his wife six years prior.
She did not know if her request would
be granted.
See JENNINGS, Page 4A
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Elliott, Cowboys top improbable Hill TD
to beat Chiefs 28-17, Page 1D
The News-Leader is celebrating its 150th
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historic masthead every Saturday.
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
SPRINGFIELD HOMELESSNESS
The Rare Breed is located at 301 N. Main Ave.
About 60-80 homeless and at-risk youths
come to the Rare Breed’s evening drop-in
center on weekdays. NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
Survey: Most
homeless kids
have stayed in
unsafe places
Jackie Rehwald Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Of the 90 homeless and at-risk youths who
were surveyed earlier this year in Springfield,
almost all of them — 93 percent — reported en-
gaging in risky behavior to remain housed.
This is according to data released this week
from the 2017 Youth Point in Time Report on At
Risk and Homeless Youth. The annual report
meets a federal
mandate set forth
by the Department
“We do have of Housing and Ur-
ban development
services in and provides a
snapshot view of
place. It’s just the homeless popu-
still not enough lation.
Samantha Sud-
... We rely on duth, coordinator
Defense attorney Lindsey Phoenix suspected
the community for Rare Breed
that the Missouri State Highway Patrol had, Housing & Emer-
indeed, tested the bathrobe of Brad to give those gency Shelter, said
Jennings for gunshot residue. And it had. common risky be-
PHOTO BY LINDSEY PHOENIX donations so haviors she often
that we can hears about range
from having to pay
have properly for shelter with food
stamps, with clean-
About this series trained staff to ing or babysitting
The stories in this series are based substantially interact with services, by having
on court documents. A copy of the prosecution’s sex or being sex traf-
our youth.”
case file — as handed over by prosecutors to ficked.
defense lawyers — was given by defense lawyers “Cleaning might
Samantha Sudduth,
to McNiel, a private investigator working for the Coordinator for Rare Breed not necessarily be
defense. ❚ McNiel, in turn, released it to the Housing & Emergency Shelter risky, but there is no
News-Leader. ❚ The newspaper independently reason we should be
requested the case file from the Missouri State
having indentured servants,” Sudduth said.
Highway Patrol through the state’s open records
law. The patrol denied the request on the “They might be living with someone who is
currently manufacturing and distributing
grounds that an appeal is pending. ❚ In addition,
the newspaper reviewed the 915-page transcript drugs. That is risky behavior.”
of the trial of Brad Jennings; the 225-page tran- Some key findings in the Point in Time re-
script of the appeal of Jennings’ conviction; and port include:
conducted multiple interviews with family mem- ❚ 75 percent have been abused while
bers, attorneys and others. homeless
❚ 69 percent slept on couch or floor
More inside ❚ 62 percent stayed with someone unsafe
❚ 58 percent stayed with someone untrust-
❚ Sister is convinced he didn’t do it, Page 4A
worthy
❚ 10 key points in the Jennings case, Page 5A
See SURVEY, Page 5A
Weather Volume 127 | No. 310 Daily $1.50
Home delivery pricing inside
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4A ❚ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2017 ❚ NEWS-LEADER
CONVICTED BY BLOOD
THE CASE OF BRAD JENNINGS
Sister is convinced he didn’t do it
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Marsha Iler, a 64-year-old registered
nurse, will not give up on her brother.
She has spent close to $200,000 to
prove that her only sibling, Brad Jen-
nings, 61, is innocent. He has been
locked away in prison eight years.
Iler has paid for a series of lawyers.
She has paid for the private investigator
who led her attorneys to a key piece of
evidence not disclosed at trial.
She has made the payments on his
vehicles. And she has paid the mortgage
on his house and farm, where Brad’s
daughter Amanda lives.
To do this, Iler had to sell her own
home in Nixa.
“It’s been hard to hang onto every-
thing,” said IIler, who now lives with her
mother in Buffalo.
Iler and her mother also raised Brad
Jennings’ youngest child, Dallas, who
was starting high school when his father
was sent to prison.
IIler has persevered emotionally and
financially even after her husband of 20
years, Lee, died during routine surgery
on Dec. 1, 2007.
“It has been a challenge,” she said.
Iler left her job at Mercy Hospital in
Springfield to earn significantly more
money as a traveling nurse to finance her
efforts to free her brother.
“I just know he is innocent,” Iler said.
“He would never take the kids’ mother
away from them. He would never hurt
them in that way. We had a parent taken
away from us.”
Their father died at age 45 of a heart
attack.
Marsha and Brad grew up on a 160-
acre family farm north of Buffalo where
their parents raised grain and dairy cat-
tle.
It’s where Lisa and Brad Jennings,
decades later, built their four-bedroom
home.
Brad and Marsha graduated from
Buffalo High. Brad loved fast cars, hunt-
ing, fishing and searching for mush-
rooms, his sister said.
As a traveling nurse, Iler has worked
throughout the nation. She currently is a
contract nurse in Hartford, Connecticut.
Typically, she returns to Buffalo on
Thursday nights so she and her mother
can visit Brad the next day. It’s a two-
hour drive to the South Central Correc-
tional Center in Licking. Iler does all the
driving.
Her mother, Freda Jennings, is 84 and
wracked with pain from arthritis and
avascular necrosis in her right shoulder.
Freda Jennings prays she lives long
enough to see her son freed, Iler said.
“It has taken a toll on her.”
Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
From what she knew about law en-
forcement investigations, it seemed odd
the highway patrol had never tested
Jennings’ bathrobe for gunshot residue,
also called GSR.
After all, they had tested that same
bathrobe for blood and used what is
called blood-spatter evidence from the
bathrobe to convict Jennings.
A gunshot residue test is often used
by police to determine if a person is like-
ly to have recently fired a gun.
“It was a big glaring omission that
law enforcement would not do a GSR
test on that robe,” said Phoenix, who
worked for Whiteaker &
Wilson PC, the law firm
hired by Jennings’ sister,
Marsha Iler.
To Phoenix’s surprise,
the highway patrol gath-
ered the evidence and
Lindsey told her she could stop by
Phoenix and look.
It was in boxes on a
conference room table at Troop D head-
quarters in Springfield when she ar-
rived, said Phoenix, who brought her
smartphone to document what she
might find.
After 90 minutes, she discovered two
canisters marked “GSR, Black Robe,
right and left.”
It was what she was after.
“I was elated,” she said.
She did not know then — officially —
whether the test was positive or nega-
tive.
But her gut told her it was negative.
“Because if it was positive it would
have come out at the trial,” she said.
Once back in the office, Phoenix filed
a request under the state’s open records
law asking the patrol for all the tests
Marsha Iler says her brother, Brad, would never have killed his wife and taken
their children’s mother away. She and Brad lost their father at a young age.
NATHAN PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
Amanda Jennings, now 26 years old,
does not believe her father killed her
mother in 2006. NATHAN
PAPES/NEWS-LEADER
In a recent visit to Licking, she said,
her brother soaked up details of his son’s
Oct. 7 wedding, although he did it with a
sense of melancholy because he was be-
hind bars.
Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey of St. Louis, would not permit
the News-Leader to interview his client
in prison.
Ramsey said there is too much at
stake with an upcoming hearing, when
Jennings is expected to testify. He did
not take the stand at trial, but cooperat-
ed with investigators prior to trial.
Iler said her brother at times is angry.
“He just doesn’t understand why this
happened. I do not think he is excessive-
ly bitter. But it takes something like this
to find out who your friends are.
“He tries to be hopeful,” Iler said.
Jennings’ two children — Amanda,
26, and Dallas 22 — believe their father
was wrongfully convicted. They miss
him daily, as they do their mother.
“He just could not do it. He is not that
kind of person,” Amanda Jennings told
performed in the case — and all the test
results.
The patrol’s response included ev-
erything she already had. It did not in-
clude results from the GSR test that she
now knew existed.
So she wrote the highway patrol lab
another letter. This time she said she
had seen the GSR test samples. She
wanted the results.
The highway patrol complied. The
test was negative.
“It was a strange mixture of emo-
tions,” Phoenix said. “I would say being
elated and completely disgusted.
“It made me feel sick to my stomach
that there was a person sitting in a pris-
on for years and years missing out on his
children growing up, who had been con-
victed of murdering his wife and now we
find out that the police had evidence
that would have shown that he didn’t do
it. They had it all along.
“I can’t think of anything that would
be worse than to have your wife kill her-
self and be wrongly convicted of her
murder and to sit in prison.”
Phoenix has since left private prac-
tice and returned to the public defend-
er’s office. She is a trial attorney in Co-
lumbia.
It was J. Dwight McNiel, a private in-
vestigator hired by Iler, who was first
suspicious that there was no GSR test of
the robe, or at least none
revealed to the defense
team.
To him, the discovery
was like catching the
prosecutor and/or detec-
tive with a hand in the
J. Dwight cookie jar.
McNiel “I have never seen
anything this blatant in
34 years,” McNiel told the News-Leader
in an interview. He was Christian Coun-
ty sheriff from 1985-88.
He called the discovery “the smoking
gun.”
Dallas Jennings says he believes his
father, Brad, was wrongfully convicted.
He wishes his father could have
attended his Oct. 7 wedding. He is
with his then fiance Makayla Moody,
and their daughter Ava. STEVE
POKIN/NEWS-LEADER
the News-Leader.
“If you’ve known him you can tell he is
not capable of something like that,” she
said. “He loves me and my brother too
much to ever do something like that to
us.”
“They fought all the time. Lots of peo-
ple fight,” she said. “That does not mean
they kill each other.
“And he loved her. He loved my mom.
And it’s just not possible.”
Eight years have passed since the day
in 2009 when Jennings was put in
shackles.
Earlier that same day, while he was
still out on bail, Jennings drove his son,
Dallas, to his first day of high school.
Dallas Jennings typically makes the
trip to the prison with wife Makayla
Moody and their 2-year-old daughter,
Ava, who is Brad Jennings’ only grand-
child.
“I am super-happy to see him be-
Lack of disclosure leads to
finger-pointing
Nash, the patrol detective who col-
lected the robe and sent it for testing,
declined to talk to the News-Leader
about the case, saying he is prohibited
by department policy from doing so. But
his attorney, Tim Davis of Branson, did.
“Dan was not in a position to disclose
(or not disclose) crime lab reports dur-
ing the pendency of the Jennings mur-
der case,” Davis wrote.
Davis, with statement in hand, also
agreed to be interviewed at the newspa-
per office.
If the report was favorable to Jen-
nings, Davis said, it was the duty of the
prosecutor to disclose it to the defense
team. The highway patrol does not con-
trol what information is disclosed.
“Dan is not in a position to intercept
the document, cancel it or tamper with
it,” he said.
It would have been the duty of the
Dallas County prosecutor or Missouri
Attorney General’s Office, not the patrol,
to disclose the report and its results, he
said.
Wayne Rieschel, the Dallas County
prosecuting attorney at the time, had
nothing to do with the prosecution of
Jennings. He removed himself from the
case due to a conflict of interest. He told
the News-Leader he attended the same
church as members of Jennings’ family.
The case, instead, was prosecuted by
Kevin Zoellner, as assistant attorney
general with the Missouri Attorney Gen-
eral’s Office.
The News-Leader requested com-
ment from Zoellner and Caroline M.
Coulter, the assistant attorney general
now handling the state’s response to a
writ of habeas corpus filed by Jennings’
current attorney.
“As this is considered pending litiga-
tion by our office, we are unable to pro-
vide comment at this time,” said Loree
Brad Jennings and his sister Marsha
grew up in Buffalo. SUBMITTED PHOTO
cause I don’t get to see him every day like
most kids get to see their dads,” Dallas
said. “And sad because I know that’s the
only time I get to see him.”
He is convinced his father is inno-
cent.
“Because I know him and I know he
would never do anything like that.”
According to the trial transcript, Sgt.
Mike Rogers with the Missouri State
Highway Patrol was interviewing Brad
Jennings when Rogers said, “Well, Dal-
las was sitting on the couch and I think
he saw you do it.”
Brad Jennings quickly replied that
could not have happened, according to
court records.
Dallas told the News-Leader he did
not see his father shoot and kill his
mother.
Law enforcement criminal investiga-
tors are allowed to lie to suspects in an
attempt to get them to incriminate
themselves.
Laci Deckard — Lisa Jennings’
daughter from a prior marriage — was
not invited to the Oct. 7 wedding. Deck-
ard testified against Brad Jennings at
trial. He had helped raise her since she
was an infant.
Shawn Powell, Lisa’s younger sister,
was not invited either. Powell was con-
vinced Lisa was murdered by Brad Jen-
nings and asked the highway patrol to
re-investigate the case.
Dallas Jennings said he has little or no
contact with either of them. Neither
Deckard nor Powell would talk to the
News-Leader for this series of stories.
Moody wears a wedding ring that
holds the diamond Brad Jennings
bought Lisa for Christmas 2006. It was
in Lisa’s Christmas stocking when she
died.
Amanda and Dallas were with their
father when he bought it in December
2006. They helped pick it out.
Dallas told the News-Leader he gave
it to Moody to honor his mother, who
chose to take her own life, and his father,
who he believes has been sitting in pris-
on eight years for a crime he did not do.
Anne Paradise, deputy chief of staff for
Attorney General Josh Hawley.
A hearing is scheduled in the case for
Nov. 7 and 8 in Rolla.
Circuit Judge John Beger, who is pre-
siding over the matter, can reject the
petition and Jennings would remain in
prison; order a new trial; or release Jen-
nings outright.
The main thrust of the writ is the ar-
gument that Zoellner, the prosecutor in
2009, committed a “Brady violation,”
which refers to a 1963 U.S. Supreme
Court case which stated that prosecu-
tors — prior to trial — must give the de-
fense evidence that might show the de-
fendant was innocent. It is called “ex-
culpatory” evidence.
A Brady violation is considered a vio-
lation of a defendant’s constitutional
right to due process of the law.
Authorities have acknowledged that
the test was done, the result was nega-
tive for gunshot residue and that it was
never disclosed to the defense.
“The document itself was not located
in the state’s current file,” the attorney
general’s office said in recent court fil-
ings.
The state’s recent court filings point a
finger at the highway patrol.
“Respondent also admits that the
testing was completed July 17, 2007, and
a copy of the report was faxed to Sgt.
Nash on the same day.”
Davis, Nash’s attorney, said that de-
spite the state’s claim that it was faxed
to Nash — backed up by documentation
from Jennings’ attorney showing it was
faxed to Nash — Davis does not know for
sure if it was faxed to Nash.
He said he also does not know if the
prosecutors ever received the test re-
sults and does not know if Nash was
ever aware they existed.
“Dan had no control over what they
received or did not receive from the
Continued on next page

10 key points in the Brad Jennings case
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
1. Lisa Jennings died of a gunshot
wound on Christmas Day 2006, in the
bedroom of her Buffalo home. Who
pulled the trigger is in dispute: Authori-
ties initially concluded she killed herself;
the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and
later a jury, decided she was killed by her
husband, Brad Jennings.
2. The patrol detective, Sgt. Dan Nash,
studied photos of blood spatter at the
scene and focused on a photo of Lisa
Jennings’ right hand; it had a single
blood drop on it. Nash thought there
should be more if Lisa Jennings shot her-
Continued from previous page
crime lab,” Davis said.
The News-Leader asked Davis why
Nash would have received other reports
from the crime lab — the ones that
helped convict Jennings — and not the
one that would have helped show his in-
nocence.
Davis said he did not know why.
Davis also said that the blood-spatter
analysis was not only Nash’s conclu-
sion, but the conclusion of Sgt. Roger
Renken, another investigator with the
highway patrol.
Renken wrote a report on March 1,
2007 and concluded that the fatal
wound “was less likely self inflicted and
more likely inflicted by an unknown
person.”
He also said his conclusion was
based not just on crime scene and au-
topsy photographs, but on “investiga-
tive information provided by Sgt. D. F.
Nash,” including that Brad and Lisa
“had been involved in a verbal argument
for several hours.”
Court documents reviewed by the
News-Leader show that the argument
lasted, perhaps, several minutes, not
several hours.
Evidence withheld: “Nobody is
absolved”
Robert Ramsey, a St. Louis defense
attorney who now represents Jennings,
said it legally does not matter who failed
to disclose the report —
prosecutor or highway
patrol — and it legally
does not matter if it was
inadvertent or deliberate.
“Nobody is absolved
from this,” he said.
Robert Ramsey, 69, filed the
Ramsey writ of habeas corpus in
December.
He is well versed in such filings. He
worked 13 years to free Mark Wood-
worth, who had been convicted twice of
the murder of a woman near Chillicothe.
Through Ramsey’s efforts, Wood-
worth walked out of prison a free man in
July 2014. Ramsey proved that prosecu-
tor Kenny Hulshof, who would later be-
come a U.S. congressman, withheld cru-
cial information that would have helped
show Woodworth was not guilty. A
judge agreed.
In the Jennings case, Ramsey has at-
tacked the credibility of Nash and has
put the lead investigator under a micro-
scope. Court filings indicate Ramsey
was able to review Nash’s personnel file
in camera, meaning in private.
In his writ, Ramsey wrote:
“At the time of petitioner’s trial, the
Missouri State Highway Patrol (and
likely the Missouri Attorney General’s
Office) was on notice that Dan Nash had
a history and propensity to testify false-
ly and to fabricate false evidence in
criminal trials.”
At Jennings’ trial, Nash was the
state’s star witness and its expert on
blood-spatter analysis.
But Nash made no mention of the
negative GSR test performed on Jen-
nings’ bathrobe. Neither was he asked
about it by the prosecutor.
This lack of disclosure was crucial,
according to Ramsey.
“If the jury had known that they did
do a test on the robe and it showed nega-
tive results, then all I have to show is that
it was relevant evidence,” Ramsey told
the News-Leader. “There is no doubt it
was relevant and it prejudiced him.”
Ramsey said he does not necessarily
have to prove that the evidence, if it had
Survey
Continued from Page 1A
❚ 33 percent used non-money pay-
ment for housing
❚ 17 percent used sex for housing
❚ 49 percent had a disabling condi-
tion
❚ 38 percent had been in jail
self.
3. Nash also found microscopic blood
on the bathrobe Brad Jennings wore that
night. Brad Jennings said it was from
holding his wife’s bloody body. Nash
concluded the blood must have come
from Brad Jennings shooting his wife.
4. Jennings was convicted of murder
in August 2009 and sentenced to
25 years in prison. His sister, Marsha Iler,
has spent approximately $200,000 try-
ing to prove his innocence.
5. In 2012, she hired investigator J.
Dwight McNiel, one-time sheriff of
Christian County. McNiel recommended
she try to locate a gunshot residue test —
unmentioned at trial or in the patrol’s re-
been presented to jurors, would have re-
sulted in a different verdict.
“The legal standard is whether it un-
dermines the confidence in the verdict,”
he said.
In his writ, Ramsey wrote:
“Given the fact that the only evidence
supporting the theory of petitioner’s
guilt was the blood-spatter analysis, the
prejudice was heightened by the non-
disclosure.
“The state’s case would have been
substantially weakened to the point
where a ‘thin’ case became a non-win-
nable case.”
In response, the state contends the
gunshot residue test results, although
not disclosed, were not “material”
enough to make a difference in the jury’s
decision to convict.
The prosecutor’s case was strong at
trial and the evidence “ample” enough
to find Jennings guilty even if jurors had
known about the test on the robe, ac-
cording to Coulter, the assistant attor-
ney general handling the case.
“Jennings has not shown a reason-
able probability that, had the evidence
been disclosed to the defendant, the re-
sult of the proceeding would have been
different,” Coulter wrote in the state’s
response.
“... Jennings’ also ignores the sub-
stantial and compelling evidence
against him that remains.”
That evidence primarily is Nash’s in-
terpretation of blood spatter at the
scene.
In addition, the state argues that
gunshot residue tests are not always
conclusive.
Nick Gerhardt of the highway patrol at
trial testified that the reason no gunshot
residue was found on Jennings’ hands
the night Lisa died could have been be-
cause Jennings washed his hands.
There was no evidence Jennings
washed his hands the night his wife
died, however.
Instead, one law enforcement officer
reported seeing blood on Jennings’
hands later in the early morning hours
of Christmas Day 2006, when Jennings’
wife died of a gunshot wound to the
head. The Dallas County coroner ruled
the death a suicide.
Ramsey said there is a far simpler ex-
planation why no gunshot residue was
ever found on his client’s hands or bath-
robe: Jennings never fired a gun that
night and did not kill his wife.
Ramsey will be allowed to present his
own blood-spatter expert to challenge
Nash’s interpretation.
The state tried in vain to prevent that,
contending that while the Brady viola-
tion is considered “new evidence,”
blood-spatter evidence is not.
Prosecutors argued that Jennings’
defense attorney at trial had the oppor-
tunity to present an expert but did not,
making it too late now.
Ramsey prevailed. He said the state
gave him a legal opening to call his own
expert — years after trial — when it
asked the judge to ignore the Brady vio-
lation because of the other “ample” evi-
dence used to convict Jennings.
Ramsey wants to challenge just how
“ample” that other evidence really was.
He will call his own blood-spatter ex-
pert despite the fact he told the News-
Leader “it has gotten to the point that
this blood splatter is almost recognized
as junk science.”
He said his blood-spatter expert is
different because he is far more experi-
enced and has better credentials than
Nash.
Ramsey’s expert, Joseph Slemko,
runs a forensic consulting company in
❚ 17 percent had been in foster care
❚ 67 percent were male, 33 percent
were female
❚ 27 percent identified as LGBTQ
Sudduth said there are typically 60 to
80 youth who come to the Rare Breed in
the evenings to hang out at the drop-in
center for homeless and at-risk youths.
From 3-7 p.m. on weekdays, it’s a safe
place where young people can get out of
the weather, take showers and get food
NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2017 ❚ 5A
ports — conducted on Brad Jennings’
robe.
6. In 2015, an attorney hired by Iler
discovered the Highway Patrol did, in
fact, test the unwashed, blood-stained
bathrobe for gunshot residue. The re-
sults were negative, casting doubt on the
prosecution’s argument that Brad Jen-
nings pulled the trigger.
7. Based on that alleged suppression
of evidence, known as a Brady violation,
Brad Jennings’ current attorney, Robert
Ramsey, filed a writ of habeas corpus
asking that his client be released or
granted a new trial.
8. Ramsey also has taken aim at the
patrol detective, Nash, alleging in court
Canada and is the former executive vice
president of the International Associa-
tion of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts.
Ramsey said in legal filings that
Slemko will testify that the highway pa-
trol made “numerous glaring errors,” in-
cluding incorrectly classifying blood-
stain patterns.
Attack on detective’s credibility
Ramsey wrote in legal filings that
“Nash had his hand in every step of the
investigation of Brad Jennings.”
Attached to the writ was an affidavit
from McNiel, the private investigator
and former Christian County sheriff. An
affidavit is a written statement backed
by oath or affirmation, for use as evi-
dence in court.
According to McNiel’s affidavit,
which is part of the court file:
❚ McNiel met in April 2013 with Jo-
seph B. Phillips, a retired Cedar County
associate circuit judge.
“Judge Phillips unequivocally stated
that he believed that Dan Nash had been
known to perjure himself in Judge Phil-
lips’ courtroom and that he believes Dan
Nash is untrustworthy as a witness, at
best.”
The News-Leader left two messages
for Phillips at his home. On Sept. 28 his
wife said the former judge did not plan
on responding.
❚ McNiel met the same month with
retired Judge Raymond T. Huesemann,
from St. Clair County.
“He made it clear that he was skepti-
cal of any testimony from Dan Nash. He
stated that while he was a sitting judge,
he had directed his prosecuting attorney
not to bring any criminal cases to his
courtroom if Dan Nash was the state’s
primary witness due to Mr. Nash’s lack
of credibility.”
The News-Leader contacted Huese-
mann, who said this: “He (McNiel) came
to see me about Dan Nash. He showed
up at my door.”
He declined further comment.
❚ In October 2016, McNiel interviewed
attorney David Healy, a partner with Ap-
pleby and Healy Attorneys at Law, in
Ozark. Healy is a former assistant prose-
cuting attorney in Greene County.
“Mr. Healy stated that it was well
known that there were a number of
prosecutors who were suspect of Dan
Nash and believed that on numerous
occasions Dan Nash had perjured him-
self while testifying in Greene County.
“Mr. Healy stated that he personally
stopped legal proceedings in which he
believed Mr. Nash was testifying un-
truthfully while under oath.”
When contacted by the News-Lead-
er, Healy declined comment. He left the
prosecutor’s office in 2004.
❚ In November 2016, McNiel inter-
viewed attorney Penny Speake, also a
former assistant Greene County prose-
cuting attorney. She worked in the office
1999 to 2004 and 2008 to 2015.
“When I questioned Ms. Speake with
respect to the truth and veracity of testi-
mony by Sergeant Dan Nash, she scoffed
and stated that she had witnessed what
she believed to be perjured testimony
from Dan Nash and that, in fact, the
credibility of Dan Nash’s testimony had
been widely discussed in the Green
County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.”
Speake declined to talk to the News-
Leader. But in September, Ramsey took
her deposition and attached an excerpt
to a motion he filed.
According to the motion, during the
deposition Speake said Nash had a rep-
utation that “he will lie to serve his own
purposes.”
and clothes.
The drop-in center is housed in the
downstairs of the Rare Breed building at
301 N. Main Ave.
The Rare Breed, a program of The
Kitchen, Inc., is open for “services only”
from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on weekdays
in the upstairs of the building. This is a
time when youths can work one-on-one
with staff to achieve certain goals, such
as doing an assessment, applying for
filings that the longtime investigator has
a “history and propensity” to “present
false and fabricated evidence and testi-
mony.”
9. The Missouri Attorney General’s
Office acknowledges the gunshot resid-
ue test was overlooked but says prosecu-
tors were unaware it existed; an attorney
for Nash blames the lack of disclosure on
prosecutors. Regardless, the state ar-
gues, other evidence was so strong Jen-
nings would still have been convicted.
10. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 7-8 in
Rolla to argue the case, after which a
judge will decide whether Jennings will
stay in prison, walk free or be granted
another trial.
In another excerpt quoted in the mo-
tion, she said:
“I had several cases with him, but
there was one in particular — and I can’t
remember the defendant’s name, but I
remember we had met ahead of time. It
was for a motion to suppress and I had
gone over questions I had for him.
“He’d given me the answers. We
talked about the theory of the case,
weaknesses and so forth. Well, then
when the hearing came ... I know that
what he testified to was not the same as
what we had discussed in our office,
which again was consistent with what
others in the office had indicated about
his credibility. But I’d never personally
experienced it until then.
“It was my opinion he lied under
oath.”
In response, Tim Davis, Nash’s law-
yer, told the News-Leader: If Speake
was so concerned about Nash’s credibil-
ity, why did she repeatedly call him as a
witness in cases she prosecuted?
Davis told the newspaper the fact
that McNiel paraphrased his interviews
with the two retired judges and two for-
mer prosecutors should raise “red flags.”
“It is entirely hearsay,” Davis said.
McNiel could have had them write
their own statements in their own
words, Davis said.
The bottom line, Davis said, is that
Jennings’ lawyer needs to portray Nash
as “a person of bad character” because
there is no other way to dispute the fo-
rensic evidence gathered not just by
Nash, but by others at the highway pa-
trol, that led to conviction.
“Their purpose is to slander Dan
Nash to deflect the public’s attention
from the strength of the state’s evi-
dence,” Davis said.
But Ramsey argued in a September
court filing that recent depositions con-
tain further reason to doubt Nash’s
credibility.
Ramsey said that in Nash’s recent de-
position, the detective said he was not
aware Lisa Jennings had tried to take
her own life.
Yet Scott Rice, now the Dallas County
sheriff, said in his deposition that he in-
formed Nash not only of that, but also
that Lisa Jennings’ biological father
committed suicide.
According to Ramsey’s September
filing:
“This is the testimony of a state
trooper who has been known to lie on
the stand, have a reputation for dishon-
esty and does not possess the necessary
credentials or qualifications to give ex-
pert scientific opinions on this.”
The News-Leader contacted Darrell
Moore, who was Greene County prose-
cuting attorney from 1999 to 2011. He
worked in the office from 1983 to 2011.
Moore now heads the criminal divi-
sion in the office of Missouri Attorney
General Josh Hawley. Moore oversees
the unit that contests habeas corpus fil-
ings.
“We are attempting to depose every-
one who is named in the affidavit,”
Moore said. “We are concerned about
the truth.
“Not everything that is alleged in an
affidavit ends up being the truth.”
Moore later sent an email to the
newspaper:
“... We are always concerned when
there are claims of actual innocence in
any case we have before us. We have a
legal and an ethical responsibility as
ministers of justice to ensure that only
the guilty are deprived of liberty as a re-
sult of a criminal proceeding where the
defendant’s rights are honored and due
process of law followed.”
housing, acquiring personal documents
or going to the doctor.
“We do have services in place. It’s
just still not enough,” Sudduth said.
“And places like the Rare Breed (drop-in
center) are community funded. We are
not grant funded downstairs at the Rare
Breed. We rely on the community to give
those donations so that we can have
properly trained staff to interact with
our youth.”
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TAX ELECTION AFTERMATH

CITY, COUNTY TALK

STEPS AFTER VOTES
How Greene County voted on the county tax initiative
Lisa and Brad Jennings were married
18 years when Lisa died from a
gunshot wound to the head in 2006.
SUBMITTED PHOTO

Highlights
from Brad
Jennings
hearing
Steve Pokin Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK

With the conclusion of a three-day

evidentiary hearing in Rolla on Thurs-
day, it was back to prison and back to
waiting for Brad Jennings, who is seek-
ing to prove he was wrongfully convict-
ed of the 2006 murder of his wife, Lisa
Jennings, in their Buffalo home.
Circuit Judge John Beger, who is
overseeing the review, is not expected to
make a decision for at least two months.
He can release Jennings from prison;
order a new trial; or have Jennings con-
tinue to serve his 25-year sentence.
The News-Leader covered the hear-
ing and also examined the case in a five-
part series. Some of the information
Map Key presented reinforced arguments attor-
neys had made in court filings, but much
Source: Greene County Clerk’s Office
60.01% and above 50.01% - 55% 45% and below of it was new. Here are four takeaways:

55.01% - 60% 45.01% - 50% An expert for Jennings

Although the primary reason for the

New fire engine for city, Support for Greene Co. hearing was an alleged Brady violation
— a failure by the prosecution to share
evidence with the defense — Jennings’
budget cuts for county tax linked to turnout attorney was able to present testimony
from a blood spatter analysis expert
Will Schmitt Springfield News-Leader | USA TODAY NETWORK Will Schmitt Springfield News-Leader | USA TODAY NETWORK with more experience than the Missouri
State Highway Patrol investigators in-
The success of two tax issues in Tuesday’s election Two recent tax votes were buoyed by relatively volved in the case.
means plans for local public safety projects are going heavy turnout within Springfield city limits, out- This was a major accomplishment for
forward. weighing lackluster showings in rural Greene County, St. Louis attorney Robert Ramsey be-
Voters passed a 1/2-cent general revenue sales tax according to a News-Leader review of election data. cause judges traditionally do not allow
in Greene County and renewed a property tax that The Greene County Clerk’s Office reported that new evidence at what is called a “writ of
pays for various public projects in about 25,000 county residents weighed in last Tues- habeas corpus” hearing.
Springfield. Neither tax has a sunset Inside day on the two measures, which included a new coun- The testimony from the defense’s ex-
date, meaning locals will be paying each ty sales tax and continuation of a city property tax. Of pert is not considered new evidence be-
State
for the foreseeable future. the 24,976 voters cast ballots, fewer than 100 did not cause Jennings’ attorney at trial, Darrell
owes
The flip side: more money for local vote on the county sales tax increase. Deputy Jr. of Lebanon, had the opportu-
$1.8M in
government projects that officials say Turnout was about 14.2 percent of the 176,076 regis- nity to call such an expert but did not.
jail pay-
citizens want. For both the county and tered voters in the county, where about 290,000 peo- The state had argued that Jennings
ments,
the city, this means civic work to in- ple are estimated to live. Most of the precincts with should not be allowed a do-over eight
Page 4A
crease safety. relatively high turnout were in the city, while several years after trial.
Greene County Commissioner Bob large county precincts reported subpar turnout. The defense’s expert, Joseph Slemko,
Cirtin had a hunch residents would back the new tax, Anti-tax sentiment — such as the opposition ex- looked at the same photographs as Nash
and three out of five county voters did just that. pressed by the brother of a county commission — was and Sgt. Roger Renken of the highway
“It is not a surprise to me that this passed,” Cirtin more prevalent outside city limits. patrol and came to the opposite conclu-
sion.
See TAXES, Page 4A See TURNOUT, Page 4A
See JENNINGS, Page 7A

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Jennings
Continued from Page 1A
“This is clearly a sui-
cide,” Slemko said.
Renken also testified
and reiterated his belief
that the death was more
likely a homicide than a
suicide.
The term “Brady viola-
tion” derives from a 1963
U.S. Supreme Court deci-
sion that stated prosecu-
tors must hand over to the
defense prior to trial any
“exculpatory” material —
meaning evidence favor-
able to the defendant.
The state and the high-
way patrol have admitted
this was not done regard-
ing a gunshot residue test
of the bathrobe Jennings
wore the night his wife
died from a gunshot to
the head.
The test was negative
— indicating it was not
likely Jennings fired a gun
that night — and the re-
sult was not given to de-
fense attorneys at trial.
Such lack of disclosure
can be considered a viola-
tion of a defendant’s con-
stitutional right to due
process under the law.
The test results were
not discovered by de-
fense attorneys until 2015
— six years after Jennings
was sent to prison.
Ramsey did some ma-
neuvering to bring Slem-
ko to the stand. He suc-
cessfully made the fol-
lowing argument, in gen-
eral, to Judge Beger:
If the state is going to
ask you, the judge, to dis-
regard the Brady viola-
tion because the rest of
the case against Jennings
was so strong, then the
defense should be allowed
to challenge how strong
that case really was.
A fax machine mix up
Sgt. Nash, lead investi-
gator in the case, blamed
the lack of disclosure on a
fax machine mix-up.
Nash said he never
knew the test was even
done until several
months ago.
Kevin Zoellner, who
prosecuted Jennings in
2009, testified he did not
hand over the test result
to Deputy at trial because
he also did not know it ex-
isted.
“I am not trying to pass
the buck, but the bottom
line is that I did not get
(the results),” Zoellner, an
assistant state attorney
general, told the judge.
Nash testified that he
recently learned the test
results on the bathrobe
were faxed from the high-
way patrol lab on Phelps
Street in Springfield to
Troop D headquarters on
Kearney Street.
But the fax machine at
Troop D is near the en-
trance to the building,
Nash said, and he and
other investigators work
in the basement.
Nash said no one at the
patrol has the responsi-
bility of ensuring that
faxes sent to the machine
upstairs are delivered to
the investigators down-
stairs.
Ramsey argues that it
legally does not matter if
the lack of disclosure was
accidental or deliberate.
Regardless, he said, it is
still a violation of Jen-
nings’ rights and the lack
of disclosure undermines
confidence in the jury’s
2009 verdict.
Alleged affairs
Nash also testified that
Lisa Jennings was having
an affair with her boss at
PIP Internet, in Buffalo.
Nash said from the
stand that this informa-
tion came from Jennings’
boss.
According to court
documents, Sgt. Mike
Rogers of the highway pa-
trol interviewed Jennings
on the day he was arrest-
ed, July 29, 2007. Rogers
Circuit Judge John Beger is not expected to rule in
Brad Jennings’ case soon. FROM THE CASE FILE
wrote:
“I asked (Jennings) if
he knew she was having
an affair. He said she had
an affair years ago and he
suspected her again and
had asked her sometime
in the recent past, but she
denied it.
“He also said he did
not know who she would
have been having an af-
fair with. I then asked if
they had gotten into a big
fight over the phone on
her last day at work be-
fore she died. He said,
‘We had an argument, but
it wasn’t a fight.’ I asked if
he drove to her work after
that phone call and he
said he had never been to
her work.
“When I told him he
had been seen outside the
business, he said he had
never been inside the
business.”
In addition, there was
testimony of a rumored
affair between Lisa Jen-
nings and Scott Rice, who
in 2006 was a Dallas
County sheriff ’s deputy.
Rice was the sheriff ’s
office investigator in the
case.
He and Lisa Jennings
had dated in high school.
Rice is now Dallas County
sheriff.
Ramsey, Jennings’ at-
torney, stated in court
proceedings that docu-
ments indicate Nash said
he received two anony-
mous letters suggesting
that Rice and Lisa Jen-
nings were romantically
involved.
There has been no evi-
dence presented that this
rumored affair was true.
Scott Rice and Mike
Rackley
Probably some of the
most difficult testimony
to follow last week was
that of Rice
and his for-
mer boss,
Rackley.
Clearly,
the two
men have
Mike disagree-
Rackley ments.
But did
those disagreements im-
pact the investigation
into the Christmas Day
2006 death of Lisa Jen-
nings?
Both men were at the
Jennings’ house soon af-
ter Lisa Jennings died.
They both concluded the
death was a suicide.
But weeks after Lisa
Jennings was buried,
Nash became involved in
the case and took another
look, focusing on the
blood spatter.
Nash first decided that
Lisa Jennings’ death was
not a suicide. He subse-
quently concluded Brad
Jennings killed her.
Rackley testified last
week that Rice did not ac-
cept Nash’s conclusion.
Rice said as much in
his testimony. He said he
still believes the death
was a suicide and the
highway patrol got it
wrong. Rackley said he
still believes it was a mur-
der.
Rice resigned in 2007
and in 2008 challenged
Rackley in the GOP pri-
mary race for sheriff. Rice
lost.
Rice challenged Rack-
ley again in the 2016 GOP
primary race. This time
he won.
What came to light at
NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2017 ❚ 7A
CT scans uncover new findings
about Kansas City mummies
Associated Press a woman, both in their mara culture.
20s, who lived and died They’re being re-
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – about 650 years ago in named Runa and Warmi,
Two mummies owned the Andes highlands which mean “man” and
by the Kansas City Mu- near Lake Titicaca in “woman” in the Aymara
seum have new stories South America. The language.
to tell after CT scans re- scans were initially con- “Basket mummies are
vealed information ducted at St. Luke’s Hos- not very numerous,”
about their background pital in Kansas City in said Randall Thompson,
for the first time in cen- September. a cardiologist who coor-
turies. The Kansas City Mu- dinated the interna-
The mummies will seum obtained the tional team studying the
now join the “Mummies mummies from a busi- CT scan results.
of the World” traveling nessman who pur- The team studying
exhibit to tour for the chased them in La Paz, the scans also used 3-D
last week’s hearing is that next few years, the Kan- Bolivia, in 1921. imaging and holograms
Rackley in 2007 asked the sas City Star reported. The mummies were to learn more informa-
highway patrol to investi- CT scan results re- originally placed in orga- tion about the mum-
gate Rice to see if Rice’s cently identified the nic baskets, which iden- mies, including their
investigation was influ- mummies as a man and tify them as from the Ay- height and health.
enced by the possibility
Rice and Lisa Jennings
were having an affair.
Testimony also
showed Rackley — before
handing the office over to
Rice following the 2016
election — took informa-
tion from Rice’s person-
nel and filed it with the
Dallas County clerk, mak-
ing it available to the state
as they prepared to op-
pose Jennings’ release.
Ramsey, as part of his
defense of Jennings, at-
tacked Nash’s credibility
on other fronts.
In addition, testimony
revealed that Brigitte
Maddux, who in 2007
was the sixth-grade
teacher of Brad Jennings’
son, Dallas, came forward
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OZARKS, 1C
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2018 ❚ NEWS-LEADER.COM
Judge throws out
Buffalo man’s
murder conviction
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
A judge ruled decisively
Thursday in throwing out
the 2009 murder convic-
tion of Brad Jennings in the
death of his wife, Lisa, who
died in the early morning
hours of Christmas Day
2006.
Jennings’ attorney filed
a motion Thursday asking
that Jennings be released
on bond from the South
Central Correction Center
in Licking.
The death, originally
ruled a suicide, was in the
couple’s Buffalo home.
Jennings, now 61, was
sentenced to 25 years in
prison.
On the day of his arrest
in 2007, Jennings told de-
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BRAD JENNINGS CASE
He now awaits
possible release
Lisa and Brad Jennings were married
18 years when Lisa died from a gunshot
wound to the head in 2006. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Inside
Games, 2C. Today’s obituaries, 4A.
Sports, 1D. Today’s TV grid, 4C.
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Marsha Iler
wept when she
found out that
a judge has
ordered her
brother’s
murder
conviction
vacated.
NATHAN PAPES/
NEWS-LEADER
tectives “the evidence is ly-
ing.” Investigators had tried
to get him to confess as they
told him that blood-spatter
evidence proved he killed
his wife.
In his ruling Thursday,
Judge Robert Beger sided
with Jennings.
The judge picked apart
the evidence and criticized
the credentials and compe-
tence of two Missouri State
Highway Patrol investiga-
tors in the case — including
the lead detective.
Jennings’ defense attor-
ney, Robert Ramsey of St.
Louis, said he called Jen-
nings with the news on
Wednesday.
“I wanted Brad to know
that there was light at the
end of the tunnel,” Ramsey
See JENNINGS, Page 5A
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Long says
he stands
by release
of Nunes
memo
Will Schmitt
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
JEFFERSON CITY — U.S. Rep. Billy
Long stands by his call for the recent re-
lease of a classified Republican memo
and supports an ongoing investigation
into Russian interference in the 2016
elections, the Missouri Republican told
the News-Leader on Thursday.
The memo, drafted at the behest of
California Rep. Devin Nunes, alleges
that top federal law enforcement offi-
cials abused their authority to spy on
members of President Donald Trump’s
2016 presidential campaign.
Long took to Twitter on Jan. 20 to an-
nounce that he had read the Nunes me-
mo and was troubled by its contents.
See LONG, Page 6A
MISSOURI HOUSE
Dems gain seat
in area that
backed Trump
David A. Lieb
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JEFFERSON CITY – Democrats have
picked up a Missouri House seat previ-
ously held by Republicans in a suburban
St. Louis district that voted overwhelm-
ingly for President Don-
ald Trump in 2016.
The victory by Demo-
crat Mike Revis over Re-
publican David Linton in
a close special election
Tuesday continued a na-
tional trend of Democrat- Donald
ic gains since Trump’s Trump
election, though Republi-
cans held on to three other seats on the
Missouri ballot.
In all four races to replace Republi-
cans who had resigned, the Democratic
See SEAT, Page 6A
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Jennings
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told the News-Leader. “He
told me, ‘I want to thank
you for what you have
done for me and what you
have done for my family.’
“It is a
good feel-
ing,” Ram-
sey said. “I
have been
fortunate
to repre-
sent some Robert
people that Ramsey
I think
were innocent and were
wrongfully convicted and
now they have a chance
for justice.”
Beger, the judge, wrote
that the failure of the state
to hand over to the de-
fense attorney the results
of a gunshot residue test
undermined confidence
in the jurors’ verdict of
guilty.
During the 2009 trial,
jurors were never shown
the results of the gunshot
residue test, which indi-
cated it was unlikely Jen-
nings fired a gun that
night.
Detective Dan Nash,
with the Missouri State
Highway Patrol, never in-
formed the prosecutor in
the case that the test was
done. As a result, the
prosecutor never in-
formed the defense.
The gunshot residue
evidence was not discov-
ered until 2016 — seven
years after Jennings’ con-
viction. It was uncovered
by Lindsey Phoenix, a
lawyer working for Mar-
sha Iler, Jennings’ sister.
The lack of disclosure
was the linchpin of Jen-
nings’ writ of habeas cor-
pus filing, which is a pris-
oner’s last chance at ex-
oneration.
Beger wrote:
“This court orders the
convictions of Brad Jen-
nings vacated and the Re-
spondent is ordered to re-
lease Petitioner, Brad Jen-
nings, unless the Missouri
Attorney General sched-
ules Petitioner for retrial
within 120 days.”
This does not mean
Jennings has been found
not guilty. He is still
charged with murder but
he is — once again — pre-
sumed innocent. He can
be tried a second time.
Laci Deckard, 31, still
believes Jennings is
guilty. She is the daughter
of Lisa Jennings and was
raised by her mother and
Brad Jennings.
Deckard testified
against Jennings at the
2009 trial. The judge’s rul-
ing to vacate the convic-
tion is based on the fact
that “a report was left out
of the first trial,” she told
the News-Leader via
Facebook messenger.
“He is still guilty!”
Deckard wrote.
The couple’s other two
children do not believe
Jennings killed Lisa.
Ramsey said Thursday
it is unclear to him if the
judge’s order means the
state must again file a
murder charge within
120 days — or if the trial
must be scheduled to start
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within 120 days.
The News-Leader has
contacted the Missouri
Attorney General’s office
for comment.
“We received the order.
We are reviewing it and
will determine the next
steps,” said Loree Anne
Paradise, deputy chief of
staff for Attorney General
Josh Hawley.
The newspaper pub-
lished a five-part series on
the case in November, pri-
or to the writ of habeas
corpus evidentiary hear-
ing Nov. 7-9, which the
News-Leader also cov-
ered.
Beger wrote:
“Had the gunshot-re-
sidue evidence from the
robe been disclosed to the
defense it could easily
have tipped the scales in
favor of another verdict —
not guilty. At the very
least, the nondisclosure
undermines confidence in
the verdict against Mr.
Jennings and places the
case in an entirely differ-
ent light.”
Beger, a former Phelps
County prosecuting attor-
ney, noted in his 19-page
ruling that he was at a loss
to explain how it was pos-
sible that the state’s star
witness at the trial, Nash,
never told the prosecutor
that a gunshot residue
test was performed on
Jennings’ bathrobe.
“Sgt. Nash was the
(boldface used by judge)
key witness at the trial of
this case and this Court is
unable to explain how Sgt.
Nash did not mention to
Mr. (Kevin) Zoellner that,
in addition to blood and
DNA testing, the robe was
submitted for gunshot re-
sidue.”
The gunshot-residue
test on Jennings’ bathrobe
would have reinforced
Jennings’ contention that
he did not kill his wife. It
also would have helped
refute Zoellner’s specula-
tion made to the jury that
the reason Jennings did
not have gunshot residue
on his hands was that he
washed them after shoot-
ing his wife.
An earlier test done the
night of the death showed
gunshot residue was not
on Jennings’ hands but
was present on Lisa Jen-
nings’ right hand, her
dominant hand.
Initially, the Dallas
County sheriff and local
coroner ruled the death a
suicide.
Lisa Jennings died at
age 39. The News-Leader
stories brought to light
that she had made a previ-
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open to attack,” Ramsey
said.
What happened in the
case, Beger wrote in his
The judge not only ruling, is that Mike Rack-
criticized the missing ley, Dallas County sheriff
gunshot-residue evi- at the time, handed the in-
dence, he also questioned vestigation over to the
the investigators’ exper- Missouri State Highway
tise in interpreting blood- Patrol based on new evi-
stains found at the scene. dence discovered by
“At the time of his Nash, whom Rackley con-
(Nash’s) ‘analysis’ of the sidered an expert in
crime scene photographs blood-spatter interpreta-
and his authorship of the tion.
Crime Scene Reconstruc- “Rackley relied on
Lisa Jennings, 39, died from a gunshot in this house tion Report, Sgt. Nash had Nash; Nash relied on Ren-
on Christmas Day 2006. Her husband, Brad Jennings, not even taken the basic ken; Renken was, by his
was convicted of murdering her in 2009. A judge bloodstain analysis class. own admission, not a
overturned Jennings’ murder conviction Thursday, “In fact, Sgt. Nash blood spatter expert.
but he could still be re-tried. NEWS-LEADER FILE PHOTO asked Sgt. Roger Renken “Therefore, the pri-
to do the bloodstain mary — and only forensic
analysis in this case be- evidence — against Pet-
ous attempt on her life at in wrongful conviction cause, in his words, ‘Roger itioner rested upon the
age 18 and her biological cases. He worked 13 years was the most experi- questionable credentials
father took his own life. to free Mark Woodworth, enced, he was the most of the State’s purported
Nash also testified late who had been convicted trained, and he’s just a experts and the boot-
last year at Jennings’ writ twice for the murder of a very good bloodstain-pat- strapping of unsubstanti-
of habeas corpus hearing woman near Chillicothe. tern analyst. ated and illogical opinion
in a Rolla courtroom. Through Ramsey’s ef- “However, Sgt. Roger evidence.
Nash said he never re- forts, Woodworth walked Renken, testified at the “Therefore, the blood
ceived the fax sent to him out of prison a free man in evidentiary hearing that evidence, as presented at
from the patrol’s crime lab July 2014. at the time of preparing trial, does not constitute
a mile away regarding the Judge Beger actually his bloodstain analysis in strong, credible evidence
negative gunshot-residue cited a ruling in the Wood- this case he had only com- of Petitioner’s guilt.”
test on the bathrobe. worth case in his decision pleted 72 hours of training J. Dwight McNiel is a
Ramsey, Jennings’ at- on Jennings. in bloodstain analysis and private investigator in
torney, on Wednesday Ramsey also expects he did not consider him- Ozark. He was hired by Il-
also informed Iler, of Buf- the state to re-try Jen- self an expert (bold-face er in January 2012 and
falo, of the judge’s deci- nings, despite the fact used by judge.)” was instrumental in dis-
sion. Beger’s ruling will make In addition, the judge covering the undisclosed
Iler is a registered that difficult, he says. wrote that Renken’s inter- gunshot-residue test on
nurse who has spent “Their evidence has pretation of the blood- the bathrobe.
$200,000 to prove her been eviscerated by this spatter pattern in this case McNiel reviewed the
brother’s innocence. order,” Ramsey said. “defies logic.” case
Ramsey said that when Ramsey said he be- He wrote that what through
he told her the news, she lieves the Missouri Attor- Renken testified to in No- the eyes of
wept. ney General’s Office is be- vember “contradicts” law en-
“We don’t hardly know ing encouraged by the Nash’s interpretation and forcement
how to feel,” Iler told the Missouri State Highway testimony at the trial. — he once
News-Leader. “We hoped Patrol to continue to fight “The two opinions are was the
for this ... We are just Jennings’ release. mutually exclusive,” Beg- sheriff of J. Dwight
blown away. It is hard to Ramsey made Nash’s er wrote. Christian McNiel
even talk about it.” credibility an issue in the Ramsey presented his County. He
It will be up to the Mis- Jennings case, and the own blood-spatter expert said this of Thursday’s
souri Attorney General’s highway patrol has a lot at the evidentiary hearing ruling:
Office whether to re-try invested in the detective’s in November. “I think it is a sad day
Jennings for murder. trustworthiness as an in- Joseph Slemko testi- for law enforcement,” he
Iler said that even if her vestigator and witness. fied that Nash and Renken said. “I am sick that it hap-
brother is re-tried, he Nash has worked hun- were wrong and that the pened. I am glad that he is
should be able to be re- dreds of homicide cases, blood-stain evidence closer to being free, but I
leased on bond. including high-profile clearly indicated Lisa Jen- don’t know where he goes
The reason the Mis- cold cases in the Ozarks, nings took her own life. to get his eight years back.
souri attorney general such as the 1985 murder of Slemko was more “I pray that the attor-
prosecuted the case in the Jackie Johns. “credible and reliable” ney general’s office does
first place is that the Dal- “Nash’s credibility than either Nash or Ren- not drag this thing on an-
las County prosecuting at- right now is certainly wide ken, the judge wrote. other second.”
torney in 2009, Wayne K.
Rieschel, withdrew be-
cause of a conflict of inter-
est. He attended church
with members of Jen-
nings’ family.
Iler said she expects
another trial.
“The state has fought
us every single inch of the
way, and I am not sure
why they would stop
now,” she said.
Iler said Ramsey and
his daughter Elizabeth
have agreed to represent
her brother if there is an-
other trial.
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2018 ❚ NEWS-LEADER.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

CU bus driver goes above and beyond to help homeless girl

Jackie Rehwald ished cleaning up and were putting on their coats City Utilities bus
Springfield News-Leader when — out of nowhere — a City Utilities bus driver driver Renee
USA TODAY NETWORK
appeared. Thompson-Fox
The bus driver asked about a tiny young lady with went out of her
As they do every Tuesday night at Grace United short dark hair who had been on her bus earlier. way to help a
Methodist Church, volunteers with Gathering Friends Was the girl still there? homeless girl while
fed the more than 100 homeless people who showed up Did she need help? driving her route
this week and then locked the doors at 6 p.m. Was she fed? on Tuesday.
Katrin Scott-Herd, who’s been a Gathering Friends ANDREW JANSEN/
homeless advocate for years, said they had just fin- See DRIVER, Page 5A NEWS-LEADER

News-Leader
wins top awards Released from prison
in APME contest
From Staff Reports
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK

The News-Leader won top awards for

investigative journalism, spot news,
feature writing and photography in the
annual contest conducted by the Mis-
souri Associated Press Media Editors.
The News-Leader also took the top
prize for General Excellence in its divi-
sion, which includes Missouri newspa-
pers with weekly circulations between
150,000 and 1 million.
Nineteen newspapers submitted 429
entries in the contest. Winners were an-
nounced Thursday in Jefferson City.
“The Man Who Reinvented Meth,” a
seven-part series by reporter Thomas
Gounley, won first place in the feature
writing category. The series delved into
the history of methamphetamine in the
Ozarks and profiled Bob Paillet, the man
credited with pioneering the “Nazi
method” of meth production.
Two other News-Leader series took
top honors in the public interest/inves-
tigative reporting category.
Reporters Claudette Riley and Giaco-
mo Bologna took first place with “Filed
and Forgotten,” an in-depth series of
stories looking at the school district’s
response to allegations of sexual abuse
against former Springfield coach and
teacher Ronnie White. Despite multiple
complaints of inappropriate behavior,
White was moved from school to school

See APME, Page 3A

Brad Jennings shares a laughs with his family after he was released at the Texas County Jail from South Central
Correctional Center on bond Friday. ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER

Brad Jennings’ murder conviction was set aside Thursday

This News-Leader photo won first
place feature photo for a shot of a
panhandler. ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
HOUSTON, Mo. — For the first time
in eight years, Brad Jennings slept in
his own home in Buffalo and not in
prison on Friday night.
He was granted bail Friday and was
taken from prison to the Texas County
Justice Center in Houston, where he
was released and met by his sister, his
two children and his 84-year-old
mother.
Jennings said he always maintained
hope because he knew he was an inno-
cent man.
“I was beginning to wonder,” he said.
“It’s been a while. I am sure glad to get
out of there.”
He added, “It’s hard. You wonder
sometimes if anything will ever hap-
pen. But we made it. That’s all that
matters.”
Jennings’ murder conviction in the
death of his wife on Christmas Day
2006 was set aside Thursday, and he
was released on $250,000 bond.
State prosecutors have 120 days to
try him again, if they choose to do so.
Prosecutors with the Missouri At-
torney General’s Office fought Jen-
nings’ release at Friday’s bail hearing
and were asked by the News-Leader if
the office plans to bring Jennings to
trial again.
They referred a reporter to a spokes-
See JENNINGS, Page 4A

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Obituaries
What animals
Name
TODAY’S OBITUARIES AND DEATH NOTICES
Age Town, State Death Date Arrangements
are allowed at
Bushong, Kenneth “Kenny”
Coon, Yvonne
77
82
Brixey
Branson
08-Feb Clinkingbeard Funeral Home
06-Feb Cremations of the Ozarks
the SGF airport?
Day, Mary Ruth 83 Springfield 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home South
Derezotes, Patsy Ann 75 Ozark 07-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home East Giacomo Bologna
Dodson, Theda Pearl 92 Springfield 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home North Springfield News-Leader
Edmonds, Bobby Ray “Bob” 74 Branson 02-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home East USA TODAY NETWORK

Fultz, James “Bill” 88 Rogersville 08-Feb Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home

Gardner, Betty Jane 87 Strafford 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home North It’s not hard to spot an actual, trained emotional-
Givens, Dorma J. 88 Springfield 06-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home South support animal, a spokesman for the Springfield air-
Greenlee, Marsha Kay 75 South Greenfield 08-Feb Greenfield Funeral Chapel port said.
Hampton, Eldon “Bud” 78 Ava 08-Feb Clinkingbeard Funeral Home - Ava Chapel They behave impeccably, they’re attentive to
Harris, Leonard Lee 93 Springfield 06-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home North their owners, and they don’t poop on the airport
Helems, Opal 80 Springfield 05-Feb Adams Funeral Home, Ozark floor.
Ivey, Faye 88 Springfield 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home North “I almost stepped on (some),” said Kent Boyd, a
Jones, Thomas Allen 62 St. Robert 07-Feb Memorial Chapels and Crematory spokesman for the Springfield-Branson National
Keeler, Fondi G. 46 Springfield 24-Jan Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home Airport.
King, James Victor “Vic” 77 Quincy 08-Feb Hathaway-Peterman Funeral Home According to Boyd, there have
Maples, Glen D. 64 Aurora 02-Feb Peterson Funeral Chapel been dogs, an occasional cat, and
Marsh, Randy Scott 51 Springfield 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home North even some pot-bellied pigs at the
McWhirter, Darrell C. 84 Aurora 09-Feb Peterson Funeral Chapel Springfield airport — either to greet
Mustain, Edna E. 89 Springfield 08-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home South people arriving home or as “emotion-
al-support” animals for travelers.
Rowan Farrell, Audrey A. 79 Springfield 07-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home East
Kent However, Boyd said some people
Thompson, III, Willard A. “Tom” 73 Springfield 07-Feb Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home
Boyd show up to ticket counters with what
Tracy, Larry 82 Mt. Vernon 08-Feb Fossett-Mosher F. H., Mt. Vernon appear to be forged documents that
*Tripp, Ronald Kirk 55 Springfield 07-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home East claim their pet is an emotional-support animal.
Tripp, Ronald Kirk 55 Springfield 07-Feb Greenlawn Funeral Home East “It happens on a semi-regular basis,” Boyd said,
VanZyverden, Charles 87 Plato 07-Feb Fox Funeral Home adding that this is an issue at airports nationwide.
Walker, George E. 62 Wheatland 07-Feb Hathaway-Peterman Funeral Home In response, some airlines are tightening their
Walker, Rose Elaine 68 Wheatland 07-Feb Hathaway-Peterman Funeral Home rules on what is and isn’t an emotional-support ani-
Young, Vern 74 Houston 08-Feb Bradford Funeral Home mal. United Airlines said it’s seen a 75 percent in-
* Additional information in display obituaries crease in emotional-support animals from 2016 to
Obituaries appear in print and online at www.legacy.com/obituaries/News-Leader
2017 and “a significant increase in onboard inci-
dents.”
Ronald Kirk Tripp In late January, a woman tried to bring her “sup-
SPRINGFIELD - On
February 7, 2018, Ron-
Beloved longtime port” peacock on a United flight at Newark Airport.
The Miami Herald reported Thursday that a
woman flushed her emotional-support hamster
ald Kirk Tripp passed
away from an apparent
Mercy physician down an airport toilet before she flew home from
Baltimore to Florida. The woman claimed a repre-
heart attack. Although
his earthly departure
dies of cancer sentative of Spirit Airlines suggested flushing the
hamster — an allegation the airline denies — be-
was sudden, we have the cause it wouldn’t be allowed on her flight.
Jackie Rehwald The Springfield airport does not have a list of
assurance that his pro- Springfield News-Leader banned or approved animals, Boyd said, leaving it
motion to heaven was in USA TODAY NETWORK
up to airlines to decide how to will handle animals.
God’s perfect timing. United Airlines and Delta Airlines — both of
Kirk was born on Au- Dr. Craig Downs, the physician who led Mercy’s which fly out of the Springfield airport — have new
gust 21, 1962 in Spring- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for many years, died regulations coming in March. The airlines will re-
field, MO. He was a 1980 graduate of Willard High Sunday at his home surrounded by family and quire notes that confirm the animal’s health from a
School and began working for the General Council friends after a long battle with cancer. veterinarian and that confirm the animal’s training
of the Assemblies of God soon after graduation. The pediatric critical care doctor practiced at to behave in a public setting, to avoid problems with
Mercy for nearly 28 years. urination or defecation during the flight.
After 16 years with the Assemblies of God, Kirk Pediatric ear, nose and throat Boyd said it’s likely that the new regulations
was employed by Cox Medical Center South where doctor Allan Allphin worked with could lead to confrontations at the airport’s
he worked for the past 21 years. He was a faithful Downs for about 26 of those years. counters, and the airport’s police officers have al-
employee who was known for always showing up “He was extremely caring. He ready been briefed on the coming changes.
to work early. loved the kids and really worked Boyd spoke with the News-Leader Thursday af-
As an avid sports fan, Kirk enjoyed playing soft- hard to establish the whole pediat- ternoon, noting that earlier that day he saw a wom-
ball and golf, watching Cardinal baseball, and Craig ric intensive care program at Mer- an in the airport’s concourse who had “a lapdog on a
Downs cy,” Allphin said. “He saved a lot of leash” while she spoke French into her phone.
attending local basketball games. This past season kids’ lives, including my own child.” According to Boyd, most people can easily recog-
he especially loved watching his niece Abby play for Allphin said there were many times when nize a trained seeing-eye dog.
her high school team. Kirk demonstrated a talent Downs was the only pediatric critical care doctor “And then you have these animals that are like the
in crossword puzzles and amazed his family with in the unit. household pet,” he said.
his broad knowledge of subjects. “He was the go-to person if we had a child that
For the past several months, Kirk was a faithful was really sick. The pediatricians would rely on USA TODAY contributed to this report.
attendee of Crossway Baptist Church and had a him. I would rely on him as a sub-specialist,” All-
phin said. “He was very dedicated and a hard
renewed passion for reading the Bible.
worker.
Preceding Kirk in death were his paternal grand- “I have a great respect for what he brought to
parents and maternal grandfather. He is survived Mercy and the great care he gave to so many criti-
by his parents Gurvis, Jr. and Nancy Tripp; his cally ill children over so many years,” he added.
brother Gregg and wife Brenda; his sister Angie Downs retired from Mercy a few years ago but
Benson and husband DeWayne; and sister Kim continued teaching at University Hospital in Co-
Bradford and husband Jeff. He is also survived by lumbia.
his grandmother Lula Graves; nieces Brandi and According to his obituary, Downs was born in
Cadillac, Michigan, in 1946.
Abby; uncles, aunts, and cousins. He is survived by his wife, Marcia; six children,
Funeral services will be held Sunday, February Erin, Zachary, Hillary, Tucker, Justina and Mitch-
11, at 2:00 pm at Greenlawn Funeral Home East in ell; two grandchildren, Amelia and Emma Downs;
Springfield, with visitation taking place one hour and two sisters, Cathy Kallinowski and Dianne
before the service. Copeland. Kent Boyd, a spokesman for the Springfield
The funeral was Thursday at Greenlawn East Airport, said people have brought pot-bellied pigs
Funeral Home. — like this one — to the airport before. PROVIDED

Jennings started out in law school,” Robert Ram-

Continued from Page 1A
woman, who was contacted and did not
respond.
Marsha Iler, Jennings’ older sister
and his only sibling, posted the required
10 percent of the $250,000 bail. She has
spent about $200,00 to exonerate her
brother.
“This has been a long time coming,”
she said. “It has been a long fight. We are
just grateful to everyone who stuck with
us.”
Jennings was asked if he could take
the emotional toll of being tried for mur-
der again.
“I’m prepared for anything now,” he
said.
He said he had no special plans for
his Friday night dinner.
A News-Leader reporter and photog-
rapher spotted Jennings leaving the
Houston McDonald’s a half-hour later.
“I am as excited as I can be at my age,”
said Freda Jennings, the 84-year-old
mother of Brad. “We have waited a long
time.”
Jennings was represented by a fa-
ther-daughter legal team, Robert Ram-
sey and Elizabeth Ramsey of St. Louis.
Robert Ramsey could not be in court
Friday because of snow in Chicago.
“It’s part of a dream I had when I
sey said via telephone. “I am overjoyed
for Brad and his family.”
It was Elizabeth Ramsey and private
investigator J. Dwight McNiel, who was
hired by Iler, who walked Jennings out
of the Texas County Justice Center on
an unusually warm February day.
Circuit Judge John Beger, who vacat-
ed the conviction, made it clear Friday
that he believes Jennings is entitled to a
new trial.
Beger did not rule, he said, that Jen-
nings is not guilty.
Beger ordered that Jennings check in
regularly with Dallas County Sheriff
Scott Rice — who testified on Jennings’
behalf at a November evidentiary hear-
ing — and not have contact with about a
dozen friends and relatives of Lisa Jen-
nings, who died from a gunshot wound
to the head on Christmas Day 2006.
Two of the people on that no-contact
list testified against Jennings at the
bond hearing Friday.
Laci Deckard, 31, Lisa Jennings’
daughter from a prior marriage, said she
wanted Jennings to stay in prison.
“I do not believe he is a good person,
and I do not believe it is the right thing,”
Deckard said.
She said Jennings murdered her
mother.
Beger set aside that conviction
Thursday, based largely on the fact that
key evidence was not disclosed to the
From left, Brad Jennings’ children
Amanda and Dallas Jennings, his sister
Marsha Iler, mother Freda Jennings
and Marcella McNiel wait to see Brad
Jennings after he was released at the
Texas County Jail from the South
Central Correctional Center on bond
Friday. ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
defense attorney at trial.
In the courtroom, Iler was with Jen-
nings’ daughter, Amanda.
Iler was fielding a phone call from her
brother from prison and Amanda was
calling her brother, Dallas, instructing
him to drive to Licking to meet his father
when he is released.
“He’s coming home today,” she told
Dallas.
Amanda and Dallas both believe
their father was wrongfully convicted.
Jennings, 61, had been in prison since
2009.
Lisa Jennings died from a gunshot
wound to the head in the early morning
hours of Christmas 2006. Her death,
originally ruled a suicide, was in the
couple’s Buffalo home.
A detective with the Missouri State
Highway Patrol later took over the in-
vestigation and concluded Jennings
had killed his wife based on an interpre-
tation of blood spatter at the scene.
Jennings was sentenced to 25 years
in prison.
Judge Beger picked apart the evi-
dence and criticized the credentials and
competence of two Missouri State High-
way Patrol investigators in the case —
including the lead detective, Dan Nash.
The prosecutor in Brad Jennings’
2009 murder trial said the reason he did
not disclose that a gunshot residue test
had been performed on Jennings’ bath-
robe is because he did not know the test
was ever done.
“I am not trying to pass the buck, but
the bottom line is that I did not get (the
results),” said Kevin Zoellner, an assis-
tant state attorney general.
The test was negative, indicating
that Jennings likely did not fire a gun the
night his wife died, according to experts
called by Jennings’ attorney.
The Brad Jennings case was the sub-
ject of a five-part News-Leader series
published in November.
 MSU standout Eierman regarded
as one of nation’s top prospects
When major league scouts were at
Missouri State baseball games last
season to watch a certain third
baseman, they left thinking about a
shortstop.
That shortstop, Jeremy Eierman,
spent the year watching teammate
Jake Burger live up to the hype of
being one of the nation’s top
prospects.
This year, it’s Eierman’s turn.
Eierman enters the 2018 season as
one of the highest-profile prospects
in the history of the school.
Read full story, Page 1D

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018 ❚ NEWS-LEADER.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

MO. BOARD OF EDUCATION

Jennings adjusts to Judge to

being home in Buffalo decide if
Vandeven
firing will
be voided
Will Schmitt Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK

JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri

Brad Jennings talks about life in prison and how it feels to be a free man once again.
ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
Pokin Around
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Brad Jennings’ main regret is that he
cooperated with investigators with the
Missouri State Highway Patrol.
I spoke to Jennings in his Buffalo home
Tuesday morning after he had made
breakfast and fed the cattle.
After eight years in prison, Jennings,
61, was released Friday on a $250,000
bond. He had been convicted in 2009 of
murdering his wife, Lisa Jennings, in
their Buffalo home.
A judge set aside that conviction
judge is weighing whether to void the
state Board of Education’s decision to
fire the former education commis-
sioner, though questions remain
about the practical effects of the pos-
sible ruling.
Attorneys representing the board
argued against lawyers representing
Springfield teacher Laurie Sullivan on
Tuesday before Circuit
Judge Richard G. Call-
ahan. The hearing began
at 11 a.m. and continued
until about 5:15 p.m.,
with a few short breaks.
Former commission-
Margie er Margie Vandeven was
Vandeven fired by a 5-to-3 vote on
Dec. 1 after Gov. Eric
Greitens stacked the board to achieve
Thursday. that outcome. All five in favor of her
The reason he cooperated with inves- firing were Greitens appointees.
tigators, Jennings says, was because he Duane Martin, the attorney repre-
knew he was an innocent man, and he be- senting Sullivan, alleges that the
lieved at the time that all police officers board broke the state Sunshine Law
seek the truth. on multiple instances during meet-
“I gave them everything they wanted,” ings on Nov. 21 and Dec. 1. The lawsuit,
he says. “I talked to them any time they which was filed in late November,
wanted. I would never do that again.” seeks declarations that the board
He had no criminal record at the time. “knowingly and/or purposefully” vio-
“I had never dealt with this before,” he lated the state open meetings and rec-
says. ords statutes and a court order barring
Captain John Hotz, spokesman for the the board from interfering with Van-
Missouri State Highway Patrol, said deven.
Tuesday the patrol would have no com- Martin and co-counsel Kristen
ment for this story. O’Neal aimed to show that the board
See POKIN, Page 4A See VANDEVEN, Page 4A

Injured puppy stealing hearts at local shelter

Jackie Rehwald Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
Meet Tinker, a 12-week-old Chihua-
hua/terrier mix that was attacked by a
bigger dog last week.
Tinker’s owners couldn’t afford the
immediate medical care she needed
and wound up bringing her to the Hu-
mane Society of Southwest Missouri in
Springfield.
“She was in shock and in pain,” re-
called Sally Nail, director of adminis-
trative operations. “She is starting to
come around. She is very cuddly. She
just curls right up and wants to be
around a human.”
Tinker lost her left eye and nearly
lost the right one, according to her vet-
erinarian. She has several bite marks
on her body from the attack. Nail said
Tuesday was the first day Tinker has
felt well enough to be playful and
bouncing around.
Nail, who admitted she stayed late
Monday night to snuggle with the in-
jured puppy, created a Facebook fund-
raiser to raise money for Tinker’s $500
vet costs. Within a few days, Tinker’s
bills were covered and donations con-
tinue to trickle in.
Many are sharing the fundraiser on
social media using the hashtag #Save-
Tinker.
Nail said all extra money that is do-
nated will go to the organization’s
emergency medical fund for sick and
injured animals.
“We get those almost daily. We see a
lot of dogs that were hit by cars,” she Sally Nail with the Humane Society of
Southwest Missouri snuggles with Tinker.
See TINKER, Page 4A SUBMITTED PHOTO

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4A ❚ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018 ❚ NEWS-LEADER
Pokin
Continued from Page 1A
In March 2007, Sgt. Dan Nash, an in-
vestigator with the patrol, asked Jen-
nings for the bathrobe he wore on the
night his wife died of a gunshot wound
to the head in the master bedroom in the
early hours of Christmas Day 2006. Jen-
nings gave it to him.
Prosecutors and highway patrol in-
vestigators used blood off that robe to
convict Jennings, but Nash never re-
vealed that another test was done on the
robe — for gunshot residue.
The results were negative, making it
unlikely Jennings fired a gun, and
matching the results of the gunshot-re-
sidue tests done on Jennings’ hands the
night of the death. They also indicated
Jennings had not fired a weapon.
The right hand of Lisa Jennings —
who was right-handed — tested posi-
tive. The death was originally ruled a su-
icide by the local coroner and local sher-
iff.
Nash testified in November at a writ
of habeas corpus evidentiary hearing —
a prisoner’s last chance at exoneration
— that he never received the results of
the gunshot residue test on the bath-
robe from the patrol’s crime lab.
A judge in Rolla set aside Jennings’
conviction based largely on the fact the
bathrobe gunshot-residue test was not
disclosed to the defense at trial, under-
mining confidence in the jury’s deci-
sion.
The Attorney General’s Office has 120
days to decide whether to try Jennings
again. The office has not said what it will
do.
As it stands now, Jennings is pre-
sumed innocent and charged with mur-
der.
Jennings walked out of prison Friday
and went home to the same Buffalo
house he and Lisa had built years ago.
About 15 friends and family members
visited to celebrate Jennings’ release,
including Shannon Bryan, the older sis-
ter of Lisa Jennings.
Shannon Bryan has steadfastly be-
lieved Jennings was wrongfully con-
victed.
Their younger sister, Shawn Powell,
believes Jennings murdered Lisa. In
fact, Powell had the Highway Patrol re-
investigate the case.
Jennings said it hurts to know that
Laci Deckard, Lisa’s daughter from a
prior marriage, still considers him a
murderer.
Deckard, 31, testified against him at
his 2009 trial and again at Friday’s bail
hearing.
She said she wanted Jennings to stay
in prison.
“I do not believe he is a good person
and I do not believe it is the right thing,”
Deckard said Friday.
Jennings said he and his wife raised
Laci from the age of about 18 months.
I messaged Deckard and she declined
to comment.
“It hurts,” Jennings says. “I treated
her just like the other kids. We always
got along good. I don’t know what hap-
pened.”
Jennings says most people in Buffalo
believe he is innocent and that there is
nothing he can do to change the minds
of those who don’t.
He tells me his marriage to Lisa was
better than what was portrayed by pros-
ecution witnesses at trial. They painted
a picture of constant turmoil and fight-
ing and of Lisa repeatedly thinking of
leaving him.
“It wasn’t anything like they were
saying,” he says.
Four days into his release from pris-
on, he says, his biggest adjustment is
simple: It’s how to handle freedom.
“Just getting used to being able to go
anywhere I want to go,” he says.
“I am glad to be home. I have a lot of
catching up to do. I missed my family. I
missed making breakfast every morn-
ing.
“I have been cooking every meal,” he
says.
Sunday night, it was steaks.
After breakfast, he says, he feeds the
50 to 60 beef cattle on his 130-acre
Meet Tinker, a 12-week-old puppy that
was attacked by a larger dog last
week. She is at the Humane Society of
Southwest Missouri. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Brad Jennings says most people in Buffalo believe he is innocent.
PHOTOS BY ANDREW JANSEN/NEWS-LEADER
Jennings spreads out range cubes for his cattle at his home in Buffalo on
Tuesday. Jennings had been in prison before a judge tossed his conviction.
property.
His daughter Amanda, who has been
living in the house, and sister Marsha Il-
er have been handling the task for eight
years.
Jennings is soft-spoken and wears
the only clothes he still had in the Buffa-
lo house — a shirt and jeans. They still
fit.
He has noticed a few changes in Buf-
falo — a new Casey’s and a new Dollar
Tree.
He visited a former business ac-
quaintance in Camdenton, where he
once purchased cars.
Jennings plans to reopen his car sales
business in Buffalo. He owns the build-
ing, which has been vacant for years. He
also will continue to work the beef-cat-
tle farm.
His chauffeurs since Friday have
been his daughter and sister.
He no longer has a driver’s license
and has been studying the rules of the
road in preparation for the test.
I asked if it will be difficult for him in a
town of 3,049 to adhere to a no-contact
list approved by the judge.
The list includes about 15 names —
including Deckard and Powell.
“Most of them I never heard of,” he
says. “If I walked in somewhere and
they were there, I would not know it. All
those Gordons — I do not even know
who they are.”
Iler tells me Gordon is the last name
of Shawn Powell’s boyfriend.
I ask Jennings if he feels vindicated,
especially considering he told a detec-
tive on the day of his arrest: “The evi-
dence is lying.”
According to court documents, in-
vestigator Mike Rogers told Jennings
that blood-spatter evidence gathered by
the patrol proved he killed his wife. He
wanted Jennings to confess.
“The evidence is lying,” Jennings told
him.
Jennings says no, he does not feel
vindicated.
“Not yet,” he says.
He could possibly be tried again.
Tinker
Continued from Page 1A
said. “We see a lot of dogs people just
aren’t financially able to help.”
“We do the best we can and the most
we can,” Nail added. “We don’t turn
those kind of animals away.”
The Humane Society of Southwest
Missouri became a no-kill shelter in
2016 and now spends about $5,000 on
emergency vet care every month, Nail
said.
The day after Tinker was brought in, a
family brought in a lethargic, diabetic
dog with a blood sugar level close to 700.
“They were looking for help and
couldn’t afford the care of the dog,” Nail
Jennings has no idea if the Missouri
Attorney General’s Office will try him
again.
If it does, he says, he is confident his
current attorneys — Robert Ramsey and
his daughter Elizabeth Ramsey, both of
St. Louis — will put up a more spirited
defense than his attorney at trial, Dar-
rell Deputy of Lebanon, who is now re-
tired.
Jennings said that, in his view, he
was given the worst possible legal rep-
resentation at trial and the best possible
representation at November’s hearing.
Regarding Deputy, Jennings said:
“All the way through it, he told me,
when we get to the end of this, every-
thing is going to come together. And
then when we got to the end of it, he did
not say a word.”
I left a message for Deputy for com-
ment and did not hear back by deadline.
I ask Jennings if he is bitter.
“A little bit. I am just glad to be home
right now.”
Life in prison was not horrible, he
tells me.
Medical care was good and he was
never exposed to violence.
That’s because he lived in the Honor
House with other prisoners who did not
violate prison rules, he tells me.
He says things moved quickly Friday,
but he managed to say goodbye to
friends in prison — both convicts and
staff. He considers his cellmate for the
past three or four years a friend.
He suspects word of his release
spread quickly among the 1,600 in-
mates.
“Stuff gets around pretty quickly in
prison,” he says.
These are the views of News-Leader
columnist Steve Pokin, who has been at
the paper six years, and over his career
has covered everything from courts and
cops to features and fitness. He can be
reached at 836-1253, spokin@gannett
.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by
mail at 651 N. Boonville, Springfield, MO
65806.
said. “They actually were looking to
have it euthanized. We said we would
rather not euthanize. We wanted to get
the dog stable and readopted.
“They are still medically watching
him and getting him stable. He is doing
much better.”
As for Tinker, Nail said adoption ap-
plications have been pouring in. When
Tinker is fully recovered, she will be
adopted on a first-come, first-served ba-
sis to a qualified adopter.
See all the adoptable animals at the
shelter and learn ways to help by visiting
www.swh.org.
The shelter is located at 3161 W. Nor-
ton Road. Call 417-833-2526.
The Humane Society of Southwest
Missouri is not affiliated with the Hu-
mane Society of the United States.
Vandeven
Continued from Page 1A
regularly posted the same notice
for executive sessions regardless of
the actual discussions that took
place behind closed doors — a vio-
lation of the law, which requires
that meeting postings be more spe-
cific. They also argued that the
board discussions veered outside
the topics disclosed to the public.
The state board, represented by
Cheryl Ann Schuetze with Attorney
General Josh Hawley’s office, con-
tends that the board habitually
goes above and beyond the meeting
disclosure requirements put for-
ward by the Sunshine Law.
Schuetze also argued that seeming-
ly extraneous discussion — about
topics such as test scores, dyslexia
and the culture of the Department
of Elementary and Secondary Edu-
cation — tied back to Vandeven’s
performance as commissioner.
Martin prompted the three cur-
rent members of the board to stip-
ulate that Vandeven’s performance
had been exemplary. Schuetze got
them to acknowledge that any
change in leadership involves a pe-
riod of transition.
The News-Leader reported in
mid-January that Martin based his
suit in part on recent testimony
from board member Eddy Justice,
who made the motion to remove
Vandeven. In the deposition, Jus-
tice described discussions among
the board in closed session that
Martin said should have been held
in a public meeting.
Justice also described meeting
with members of Greitens’ staff and
other board members prior to at-
tempts to fire Vandeven. This in-
cludes a meeting with at least two
other board members the night be-
fore the governor’s appointees
ousted the commissioner.
Callahan, who said at the outset
he’s “not a Sunshine law expert,”
took the arguments under advise-
ment and gave the attorneys addi-
tional time to review numerous
pages of depositions. It is unclear
when he might issue a ruling on
Martin’s request for an order void-
ing the vote.
It remains uncertain as to what
practical effect such an order would
have. There’s no indication that
Vandeven would come back to her
post. Attempts to reach her Tues-
day night were unsuccessful.
Furthermore, the board current-
ly lacks the necessary members to
take any official action, including
any decisions related to her poten-
tial re-employment.
Once lawmakers convened in
early January, Greitens withdrew
his appointments and re-submit-
ted them for the consideration of
the Senate, which offers its advice
and consent on gubernatorial ap-
pointees. The governor’s maneuver
bought his appointees additional
time, but they still could be banned
from the board for life if they fail to
win Senate approval before the ses-
sion ends.
Multiple senators have voiced
their willingness to grind the Sen-
ate to a halt in protest of Greitens’
appointees, who are expected to
have hearings before a Senate com-
mittee in March.
Martin also argued that the orig-
inal minutes for the November and
December meetings contained er-
rors. Attempts to rectify these mis-
takes were only made after Sulli-
van’s lawsuit was filed, he said.
Despite any clerical mistake or
“scrivener’s error,” Schuetze said,
the board would not have inten-
tionally or knowingly broken the
Sunshine Law.
Roger Dorson is serving as in-
terim commissioner. The board had
started searching for a permanent
replacement, but since Greitens re-
moved the majority of members,
the remaining contingent lacks the
ability to carry on official business.
The News-Leader previously re-
ported that Greitens had been in
communication prior to his elec-
tion with Ken Zeff, an Atlanta-area
education official and old friend of
the governor. The two were White
House fellows together under
President George W. Bush’s ad-
ministration.
Zeff drafted an education agen-
da for Greitens during the cam-
paign in 2016. Last year, Zeff sent
the governor’s office his resume
and traveled to Missouri to meet
with the governor and his senior
staff.
Less than a week after Zeff had
dinner at the Governor’s Mansion,
Greitens started making the first of
what would eventually be 10 ap-
pointments to the board of educa-
tion.
 NEWS-LEADER.COM ❚ SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2018 ❚ 7A

‘I don’t think those lawyers did him justice’

Pokin Around
Steve Pokin
Springfield News-Leader
USA TODAY NETWORK
One juror who found Brad Jennings
guilty of murder in 2009 said this week
he had a “funny feeling that he (Jen-
nings) was not getting a fair shake” be-
cause the defense attorney in the case
did so little.
“I don’t think those lawyers did him
justice,” juror Eddie Hawkins tells me.
“That’s from what I seen, in the whole
case.”
And yes, he adds, evidence that was
never handed over to the defense at trial
could have made a difference in his find-
ing of guilty.
The exculpatory evidence was not
discovered until 2016; it was in the pos-
session of the Missouri State Highway
Patrol and found by an attorney hired by
Marsha Iler, Jennings’ sister.
A gunshot residue test by the high-
way patrol on the bathrobe Jennings
wore the night his wife, Lisa, died from a
gunshot to the head indicated it was un-
likely Jennings fired a weapon that
night.
“If I would have known that and ev-
erything, it definitely would have made
a difference,” Hawkins says.
This week, I contacted four of the 11
remaining Dallas County jurors; one
died at age 81 in November.
According to a trial transcript, the ju-
ry deliberated for two hours and 24 min-
utes after the three-day trial.
Judith Rollins, jury forewoman, said
“maybe” when I asked whether the un-
disclosed test results might have made a
difference in her finding of guilty.
I met with Rollins at her home Thurs-
day night.
She says the initial vote in the jury
room was split, but the majority favored
conviction. She did not recall the exact
vote. A unanimous vote is needed in a
criminal case.
Two other jurors I called told me the
excluded evidence would not have mat-
tered and they still would have found
Jennings guilty.
Jennings was convicted of murder-
ing his wife in the early hours of Christ-
mas 2006 and was sentenced to 25
years in prison.
A judge on Feb. 8 vacated that con-
viction — in effect overturning the jury’s
decision — in large part because the
lead detective in the case never revealed
key evidence.
Jennings was released on $250,000
bail the next day.
Prior to trial, Detective Dan Nash, an
experienced investigator with the high-
way patrol, had the state crime lab test
the bathrobe for blood and gunshot re-
sidue.
The blood on the bathrobe was used
to convict Jennings. But the fact that a
test for gunshot residue on the bathrobe
was done — and the results negative —
was never revealed to the prosecutor,
according to court testimony, and in
turn, was never revealed to the defense
attorney.
The death originally was ruled a sui-
cide. But Jennings was charged with
murder after the case was re-investigat-
ed by the highway patrol.
Jennings was convicted in large part
on Nash’s testimony regarding his inter-
pretation of blood spatter found at the
crime scene in the couple’s Buffalo
home.
Juror Greg Whipple tells me he still
would have found Jennings guilty even
if he had known of the negative gun-
shot-residue test on the bathrobe.
I asked him to elaborate.
“Nope. I do not have anything more to
comment on. I think the jury did the
right thing. That’s the deal.”
Since his release this month, Jen-
nings is once again presumed to be in-
nocent. He still faces a murder charge.
The Missouri Attorney General’s office
has not yet revealed whether it will retry
him. Jennings has steadfastly said he
did not kill his wife and that she took her
own life.
The News-Leader published a five-
part series on the case in November.
These are the views of News-Leader
columnist Steve Pokin, who has been at
the paper six years, and over his career
has covered everything from courts and
cops to features and fitness. He can be
reached at 836-1253, spokin@gan-
nett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or
by mail at 651 N. Boonville, Springfield,
MO 65806.

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