Welty case moved to St. Louis County

Fourteen-year-old Owen Welty of Bloomfield, Mo., has once again been granted a change of venue.

In a decision Monday afternoon, Cape Girardeau County Judge William Syler agreed to move the 19-month-long case to St. Louis County for trial. This will make the third venue for the case and another trial date canceled. In early March, Welty fired all three of his attorneys and hired N. Scott Rosenblum of St. Louis to defend him. The new attorney and new venue effectively move the case back to square one.

Several appeals, battles against psychiatric testing and legal changes have all contributed to the lengthy process. The case has been scheduled for trial on multiple occasions.

No hearing or trial date has been scheduled as of press time.

Welty is charged with the Nov. 14, 2006, murder of 64-year-old Don McCollough at his farm east of Bloomfield.

Certified to stand trial as an adult in December 2006, he was incarcerated at the Stoddard County Jail for more than seven months. Upon a motion for change of venue in the summer of 2007, he was transferred to the Cape Girardeau County Jail in Jackson where he currently sits on a $250,000 cash-only bond.

He is facing charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Because of his age, Welty is not eligible for the death penalty. A June 2006 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court determined that sentencing a juvenile offender to death was unconstitutional even if the defendant is declared an adult.

He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

Welty would be one of the youngest people ever tried as an adult in a Missouri murder case.

Welty appeared at Monday's hearing dressed in orange jail-issued clothing, handcuffed. Now nearly 15, he is tall and pudgy with closely cropped hair. Prior to the proceedings he sat quietly, sometimes whispering to other inmates also awaiting court proceedings. His parents sat in the courtroom and nodded to him, but did not speak with him.

From the beginning, his family has proclaimed his innocence insisting that he was a good boy who goes to church on Sundays and could not have killed anyone.

An early hearing and motion for a pretrial psychiatric examination in the case brought forth a mental health history that stated the boy suffered from "demon hallucinations and auditory command hallucinations of a homicidal and suicidal nature directed primarily at family members and himself."

It was reported by the court in March that on the day of his own murder, McCollough had discussed with Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner the defendant's involvement in shooting a dog, a bull and "other acts of violence involving firearms and his concern that he might shoot a person."

Thus far in court, the bullet found on McCollough's property has not been conclusively linked to Welty's gun. The forensics report stated that the bullet could have come from either the .243 Rossi or the .243 New England Firearms rifle, but could not say conclusively because of the small size of the recovered fragment.

Welty is the son of Ronnie and Lori Welty of rural Bloomfield, Mo., and attended Bloomfield Middle School prior to the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, when he began home schooling.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.