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

The family of Kansas City lawyer Thomas Pickert, who was shot and killed in his front yard on Oct. 25, 2017, got some very bad news today: The first-degree murder trial of defendant David Jungerman has been continued until Sept. 12, 2022.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge John Torrence made that ruling this morning after a 45-minute, in-chambers hearing at which Jungerman was not present.

…This is lousy, deflating news for almost everyone. After four years of motions and delays, partly due to Covid-19, the case was supposed to go to trial this week. Now, Pickert’s family, the KC Police Department, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office and area residents who were outraged by the slaying will have to wait at least another nine months for resolution.

I don’t know all the reasons behind the long delay, but I believe there are two main factors:

First, the court system is very backed up after it was shut down for many months due to Covid-19. Even though this is a high-profile case, it may have had to go to “the back of the line,” behind other cases that have been scheduled. A related problem is that, because of the pandemic, trials are now being scheduled for just three courtrooms at the downtown courthouse.

Second, Torrence this week sustained a defense motion demanding that the police department produce emails, some of which pertain to preparation of a slide show of a 1997, white Chevy van that police and prosecutors believe Jungerman drove from Raytown to Brookside the day Pickert was killed in his front yard. Two police civilian employees have testified in depositions that efforts to retrieve emails the defense has demanded have been unsuccessful.

Lead defense attorney Daniel Ross has filed a blizzard of motions asserting police and prosecutorial misconduct. The motion regarding the emails stuck.

As recently as last Tuesday, Torrence rejected a defense motion for a continuance. The next day, however, he granted the request.

In that Wednesday, Dec. 8, order he said he was “regrettably” acquiescing to a delay “after discussion of new issues related to discovery that just emerged this morning.” (“Discovery” pertains to evidence the prosecution is required to turn over to the defense before trial.)

The order did not say what the “new issues” were, and it is entirely possible that the missing emails are not the only matters causing the delay.

After leaving Torrence’s fifth-floor courtroom this morning, I went down to the Circuit Clerk’s office on the third floor and reviewed numerous filings in the case. One in particular caught my attention.

At some point, the prosecution apparently informed the defense that the lead detective on the case, Bonita Cannon, and two other front-line detectives, Richard Sharp and Heather Leslie, will not be called to testify at trial.

The defense has alleged misconduct by Cannon in other cases, but it appears from the case file that Judge Torrence dismissed those concerns. He said in one filing that he reviewed the personnel files of Cannon and several other detectives and concluded that “there is absolutely nothing contained in these records that should be disclosed to the defendant for any reason or purpose whatsoever.”

Nevertheless, it is extremely unusual for the lead detectives not to take the stand in big murder trials. I would think it would be difficult to make a strong case without them. The defense, seemingly, could point out to a jury that the lead investigators are “nowhere to be found.”

On that point, though, as on others, time will tell.

**

While this delay is frustrating and confounding, it is now more likely than ever that Jungerman, who would turn 84 in March, will die while in confinement.

He has been held in the Jackson County jail since 2018, and, as you would suspect, life behind bars is not agreeing with this one-time multi-millionaire. (He might still be a multi-millionaire, but he now claims to be homeless…other than his jail cell, of course.)

In one filing with the court, he said he suffers from prostate cancer and skin cancer, has a pacemaker and endured a serious case of Covid, apparently either late last year or early this year.

“Defendant,” he wrote, “…suffered 14 days in the hospital with 104 degree tempetatures (sic), double pneumonia and being close to death while shackled to the bed.”

In a July motion to dismiss the case against him, Jungerman said the prosecutor’s office had denied him his Constitutional rights “in hopes this case will just disappear through my death creating a win, win situation for everyone but me.”

…David Jungerman is probably on to something there. His attorney, Ross, is happy to continue submitting invoices while his client is drawing air and pumping blood, and his prosecutors, while they probably don’t like the new continuance, are undoubtedly content to see him continue deteriorating behind bars.

Like almost everyone else in town, I want to see this old man dragged into court, convicted and committed to Missouri DOC (Department of Corrections).

But if he dies first — and as long as he’s miserable in jail — it’s okay.