Court affirms Bootheel man's murder conviction

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A trial court judge properly allowed a Pemiscot County man's confessions to police to be admitted at his murder trial, despite the defendant's claims he was drunk when he made the statements, an appeals court has ruled.

In a decision issued Friday, a three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District affirmed Wendell R. Armstrong's conviction for second-degree murder.

Armstrong, 56, is serving a life sentence at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

In the early morning hours of June 28, 2000, Armstrong shot Calvin Lacey while the two were swimming in the Mississippi River near Cottonwood Point in southern Pemiscot County.

The men had been drinking steadily and had gotten into a fight, but apologized to each other.

Armstrong was arrested shortly after the shooting and immediately turned the gun over to a Pemiscot County sheriff's deputy.

Admitted firing shots

After being read his rights, Armstrong admitted firing shots at Lacey but said he was unsure if he hit him. Lacey's body was eventually recovered downriver in Arkansas. A coroner determined he died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Later that morning, after he had slept, Armstrong admitted shooting Lacey and signed a form waiving his right against self-incrimination. He initially claimed self-defense, but soon recanted his statements that Lacey had attacked him.

During a videotaped statement that afternoon, Armstrong again confessed and said he knew a bullet had struck Lacey in the head.

In his sole point on appeal, Armstrong claimed his confessions to a deputy were involuntary because he was intoxicated and unable to appreciate the consequences of his statements.

The appeals court disagreed.

"The evidence shows that although Defendant may have been intoxicated at the time of the shooting, he was able to understand his rights during the three separate occasions that he admitted shooting Mr. Lacey," Judge Phillip R. Garrison wrote in the court's unanimous opinion.

Prosecutors downgraded the charges against Armstrong from first-degree murder in exchange for his waiving his right to a jury trial. Circuit Court Judge Fred W. Copeland found Armstrong guilty following a bench trial.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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