I made a trip down to the Jackson County Courthouse this snowy afternoon to see what’s new in the David Jungerman and Kylr Yust cases.
They are the defendants, of course, in arguably the two biggest murder cases pending in Jackson County — the killings of lawyer Thomas Pickert (Jungerman) and those of Jessica Runions and Kara Kopetsky (Yust).
When I last reported on the cases, in early September, Jungerman had hired a second lawyer, and a judge had ordered a mental examination for Yust at the request of his public defenders.
Here are the updates…
Jungerman
Jungerman’s newest attorney, David S. Bell of the Wyrsch, Hobbs & Mirakian firm, has filed a motion for a “change of venue,” that is, that the trial be moved to another county primarily because of the extensive publicity the case has drawn.
The trial is scheduled to start Jan. 20, but a change of venue could prompt a delay.
After laying out the circumstances of Pickert’s murder — shot down in his front yard after having walked his two young sons to school — Bell wrote…
This nightmare is forever burned into the hearts and minds of persons living in the metropoitan area as local and national media outlets repeatedly described the scene, the family’s storty and the hunt for the killer…The ongoing and often inflammatory media coverage has irreparably harmed Mr. Jungerman’s ability to receive a fair trial with a Jackson County jury. The inhabitants of Jackson County are so prejudiced against Mr. Jungerman that he cannot receive a fair trial with jurors from Jackson County.
Bell’s motion said the defense had financed a survey of 546 Jackson County residents and that 35 percent of the respondents recall the crime “and virtually 100 percent of the individuals hold an opinion that Mr. Jungerman is ‘probably guilty’ to ‘definitely guilty.’ ”
The decision on a change of venue will be made by Jackson County Judge John Torrence. If he were to grant the defense motion, I believe the trial would have to go to a county approximately the size of Jackson County, which would mean, very likely, St. Louis County or maybe St. Louis City, which has its own court system.
In my opinion, there’s about a 50-50 chance that Torrence will grant a change of venue. The case has drawn a lot of publicity overall but not as much from The Star as the case would have received before The Star began significantly shrinking its coverage area and laying off employees in 2008.
Bell
Ross
Another interesting facet of the case is that Bell has clearly moved into the lead lawyer position, displacing Daniel Ross, whom Jungerman has threatened to fire twice. The most recent time was Aug. 1, when Jungerman filed notice with the court that Ross was no longer his attorney. That same day, Bell filed his “entry of appearance” on behalf of Jungerman. On Aug. 2, however, Ross filed notice that he was still representing Jungerman. The filing bore Jungerman’s signature. Ross’ name has not appeared on any court filing since then.
Yust
In early September, at the request of Yust’s attorneys, Cass County Judge William B. Collins ordered a mental evaluation of Yust by state psychologists. In their Oct. 10 report, two psychologists concluded that Yust was “competent to proceed” to trial, despite the fact that he had “mood-altering symptoms, including anxiety, depression and suicidal gestures.”
The psychologists said Yust’s symptoms had “increased in severity since the discontinuation of his prescribed medications,” and they said medical treatment was “probably necessary.”
In response, Yust’s attorneys filed a motion objecting to the state psychologists’ conclusion that their client was fit to stand trial and asked Judge Collins to order an additional examination “by a doctor of the defendant’s choosing and at his own expense.”
Collins immediately granted that motion.
This will be the second mental examination initiated by the defense. Earlier, the defense had hired a St. Louis psychiatrist named Jose Mathews to examine Yust. Mathews determined that Yust “lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense and…is mentally unfit at this time to proceed.”
…So now it’s a battle of the psychologists and psychiatrists. If Judge Collins should ultimately determine that Yust is not competent to stand trial, he would order the defendant to be held in a state mental institution, where Yust would undoubtedly be confined for many years. That, of course, would be an unsatisfying development for the many people interested in seeing Yust get his just desserts.
As I said in my last post about this case, there is no doubt that, colloquially speaking at least, Yust is one crazy mother fucker. I hope the doctors get the guy on some good meds and that we see him stand trial relatively early next year.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
I don’t know why Bell would want to dump Torrence. He’s the same buffoon who gave 120 days to the drunken Mertensmeyer kid who killed a pedestrian in a hit and run case. The little bastard was the son of a wealthy Mission Hills attorney so who knows, with Jungerman’s money, in Torrence’s court he could get probation.
That’s kinda funny, John, but I don’t think probation would be an option in a case like this. I can’t imagine the jury even being given the option of second-degree murder. This is a Murder One case all the way.
There’s more going on in the Yust case. Cass County Prosecutor Ben Butler (who, by the way, lost his first murder case after ascending to the office by beating his predecessor who tried and got convictions on 21 previous murder cases) has had to explain to Judge Collins just how a slew of evidence gathered by his office and Belton Police was not turned over on a timely basis during the discovery phase. Butler has basically tossed Belton PD under the bus, but it is his burden to gather and produce all evidence to the defense, not the investigators’ responsibility. Which leads me to point out there’s a new board game in Cass County called CLUEless: The Butler didn’t do it, in the courtroom, with all the evidence he needed.
The metro area is plagued with incompetent prosecutors. In WYCO, trials are virtually non-existent because the clown Dupree pleas everything out. Check for yourself. Our judges are sitting on their ass twiddling their thumbs. Felon with a gun? Plea it out as a misdemeanor. Literally.
Howe in JOCO is a joke and Jean Peters Baker in Jackson is a defense attorney’s dream. Add in the idiots on the Jackson County bench like Torrance and criminals laugh at the system and rightly so.
And what happens when they run from the cops and someone gets hurt? People blame the cops, not the criminal that fled. We just had one that fled from the Bonner PD down 32 at over 100 MPH and they let them go. They let them go. Terrorizing the public with a 5,000lb vehicle and they let them go.
Thanks for the addition, Steve. I did see something about turning over evidence, but I didn’t get that detail…I also saw that a witness named Amy Clarke has failed to show at least twice for scheduled depositions and the judge ordered sheriff’s deputies to pick her up and hold her until she can be deposed.
Hey, Jim, all your readers who still get a print Star should take a look at Pearls Before Swine this morning, October 31, page 7B. Thanks.
That’s outstanding, Peg…I might be writing about that, within a larger context.
(I can’t find it in the online comics, just in print.)
Clarke is an interesting wrinkle that I’d missed. After Yust’s half-brother’s suicide, the prosecution needs all testimony it can get.
I see from a Channel 9 story Clarke was the first person to report Kopetsky missing. She must be scared to death. The files don’t indicate if Clarke was taken into custody — just that the judge ordered she be apprehended Oct. 2, a day after she failed to show for the second time.