Swingle - Murder of Lape triggered by greed

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Mark Anthony Gill and an accomplice killed Ralph L. Lape Jr. out of greed for the $118,000 he had in the bank, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said Tuesday during his opening argument in Gill's capital murder trial. He said they went on a spending spree a day after the killing.

Lead public defender Sharon Turlington admitted her client participated in some of the crimes committed against Lape, who lived in rural Jackson, but she told the jury Gill did not pull the trigger on the gun that killed the 54-year-old victim.

Swingle brought 134 items to illustrate to a jury how Gill, one of two men charged, allegedly abducted Lape from his rural Jackson home July, 7, 2002, shot him to death and buried the body in a cornfield near Portageville, Mo. Gill, 33, faces a possible death penalty if found guilty. The case was moved on a change of venue.

His alleged accomplice, Justin M. Brown, 24, faces a jury trial Sept. 7 in Pulaski County on a change of venue and also could receive the death penalty.

An arsenal of evidence sat behind the prosecutor's table Tuesday at the New Madrid County Courthouse during the first day of testimony in the capital murder trial. Stacks of enlarged photographs, boxes of evidence and posterboard illustrations were less than 6 feet in front of the shooting victim's family before the trial began.

Security at the courthouse was heightened, with only one entrance unlocked as visitors walked through a metal detector and surrendered cell phones and pocket knives to a deputy. However, some women's purses were handed back to the owners unsearched.

The jury and two alternates were brought in at 10:30 a.m. to hear opening arguments by Swingle and by Turlington, who was assisted by public defender David Kenyon.

Swingle started off saying the crime was about Lape's money and Gill's desire to have it. Lape, 54, had more than $118,000 in the bank in a money market account and a checking account when he was killed.

"This was greed, pure and simple," Swingle said. "... This murder was done with the purpose of getting that money."

Swingle said the victim had only known Gill for a few weeks, having allowed him to live in a camper trailer in Lape's garage as a favor to a mutual friend, lawyer Patrick Davis of Cape Girardeau. Both Lape and Gill had performed work for Davis -- investigation work by Lape and odd jobs by Gill.

When Lape left for a July 4th holiday trip to Kentucky Lake for a few days, Gill looked through the man's personal papers, found out about the money and contacted Brown, Swingle told the jury.

The prosecutor said the men took two of Lape's handguns and waited in the garage for him to return from the trip. When he did, they allegedly bound him with duct tape and plastic ties.

"They then put Ralph Lape in the floor of his own extended cab pickup truck to transport him to his grave," Swingle said.

Swingle recounted how Gill and Brown allegedly went to a strip joint and a motel near St. Louis with Lape's ATM and Discover cards a day after the murder and how Gill left the region later in the month for a cross-country trip, all the while siphoning more of the victim's money from his accounts through ATMs.

All but first degree

Turlington did not excuse her client from taking part in the crimes but pleaded with the jury to listen to testimony that would prove Gill was not guilty of first-degree murder.

"I am here to tell you Mark Gill was a part of this crime," she said. "... He's not proud of it. He's guilty of all of these crimes except murder in the first degree."

She asked the jury to understand how Gill, who she said grew up extremely poor, couldn't make clear decisions at that time.

"He'd never seen that much money," she said. "Yes, he was blinded by greed and became involved in these crimes. ... But he was not the one who found the papers. He was not the lookout. He's not the person who pulled the trigger that killed Ralph Lape."

By mid-afternoon, eight of the 26 expected witnesses had taken the stand, including members of the victim's family, two friends and Dr. Russell Deidiker, who performed Lape's autopsy.

During much of the testimony, Gill sat with his head in his hands or taking notes, occasionally whispering to his attorneys.

Outside the courthouse, Gill's mother, Mary Alice Gill of Portageville, said she doesn't believe her son is capable of murder and theorized he was paid to get rid of Lape's body after someone else killed him.

"That's not how I raised him," she said, walking down the steps of the courthouse with several other relatives.

Testimony will continue today. The trial is expected to last most of the week, with closing arguments to be offered possibly on Thursday, Swingle said.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160