JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

Good news, readers: It appears David Jungerman will remain behind bars until either of two felony cases pending against him goes to trial.

In my rush to put together Friday’s post on the new felony charges filed that day against Jungerman in Jackson County, I failed to check the latest entries on Case.net, the Missouri judiciary’s case information website.

When I went to Case.net on Saturday, I had a pleasant surprise…Judge David R. Munton, who is overseeing a southwest Missouri case in which Jungerman is charged with attempted burglary, had entered this note on Friday:

“Defendant’s bond is revoked. Defendant to be held without bond until further order of the court. Revocation pending hearing is based on allegation of new multiple felony charges in Jackson County.”

Before the new charges were filed — two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of armed criminal action — Jungerman had been free on $15,000 cash bond in the southwest Missouri case.

Now he is behind bars, I believe in the Jackson County Detention Center, on $1 million bond in the new case.

Although he is a multi-millionaire, all the money in the world might not be able to spring him from custody at this point, before one of those cases goes to trial. He will get a hearing on the bond revocation, as Judge Munton indicated in his entry, but I believe the judge will stand firm on the revocation, possibly on grounds Jungerman poses a threat to others and is a flight risk.

My concern Friday was Jungerman might be capable of making the new bond because of his wealth. He has said in court that his net worth is about $8 million, but indications are it could be a lot more than that.

He owns several thousand acres of farm land in southwest Missouri, and for a long time he was executor of the Jungerman Family Trust. He passed the executorship to his daughter — essentially meaning he no longer had direct access to the assets — after civil lawsuits were filed against him in connection with two 2012 shooting incidents.

The biggest threat to his wealth is a $5.75 million civil judgment that a victim of one of the 2012 shootings won at trial last summer in Jackson County. That case may well have led to the fatal shooting of the plaintiff’s attorney, Thomas Pickert, who was gunned down in his front yard a day after Jungerman was notified court officials would be seizing enough of his property to satisfy the $5.75 million award.

Police and prosecutors have not been able to uncover enough evidence to charge Jungerman with Pickert’s murder. Although two witnesses described seeing an elderly white man with gray hair in or near a white van parked in front of Pickert’s house, neither, apparently, can positively identify the shooter, and neither got the license plate of the white van. Jungerman has a white van, which police searched but later returned to him.

**

This new development — Jungerman being held without bond — is a big relief to those of us who have been frustrated by the lack of a solution to Pickert’s murder. Finally, it would seem, this maniac who likes to settle disagreements with gunfire is off the streets.

At age 80, he is not likely to adjust well to life behind bars.

For one thing, he will be surrounded, for the most part, by young toughs also charged with felonies and awaiting trial. In addition, his health could go downhill quickly in confinement. He’s had both knees replaced, and during the civil trial last summer, he claimed to have suffered brain damage in a 2013 fall when his head struck concrete.

“That’s why things don’t flow out like they should,” he said during the trial, in which he foolishly represented himself.

I think confinement is also likely to knock the cockiness out of him. His brashness has been chronicled in public documents at least twice.

In the new case, where he shot at or near a man he believed had stolen iron pipes from his business, Jungerman told police he fired a warning shot but did not aim at the man. He later told a Kansas City police officer, “Missing him would have hurt my pride.”

The other time his cockiness was on display was in a deposition before the civil trial. Pickert noted, in questioning, that Jungerman had fired five times at the victim — his client — and hit him with three bullets. (The man later had to have a leg amputated.)

Jungerman offered: “That’s pretty good from the hip isn’t it? That’s lucky shooting, isn’t it?”

…At long last, it appears David Jungerman’s luck has run out.