The
Joplin Globehttp://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=213918&PHPSESSID=712190bacf4ed79ebf8117829ad7a2dc
Roger McKinney
12/8/05
The same day, Dorothy Daniels was buried.
Cherokee County Attorney Michael Goodrich charged John B. Gaston, 22, and James D. Rickey, 34, both of Joplin, Mo., with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary related to their alleged invasion of Daniels’ home Dec. 1 and her death later that day at a Pittsburg hospital.
Daniels, 86, lived about five miles north of Crestline and about a half-mile east on Star Valley Road. Before she died, she told investigators from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department that about 11:45 a.m. on Dec. 1, two men approached her house posing as handymen and asking whether she needed any work completed. They asked to come inside out of the cold, and Daniels allowed them to do so. When they got inside, they ripped the phone cord out of the wall and began making demands of her, authorities have said. They told her they wouldn’t hurt her if she cooperated. They left with her purse and other items.
She drove to a neighbor’s house to call 911, then returned to her own house to meet with the investigators. While being questioned by the investigators, she began having what they thought was a heart attack. The investigators performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and revived her. She was conscious and alert when she was loaded onto an ambulance, but she later died.
Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman activated the Tri-State Major Case Squad after Daniels’ death.
Norman on Wednesday said the first-degree murder charges are warranted in the case. He said the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Daniels thinks the stress of the incident caused her death. Norman declined to reveal any additional information about the initial autopsy results or the cause of death.
“We believe we can prove that case,” Norman said.
The first-degree murder statute in Kansas defines it as killing someone with premeditation, or “in the commission of, attempt to commit, or flight from an inherently dangerous felony.”
Those felonies include aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.
Frank Papish, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent, said there is precedent for successful prosecutions using the second provision of the statute.
Norman said the aggravated-kidnapping charges relate to Gaston’s and Rickey’s alleged confinement of Daniels by threat during the robbery. The statute defines aggravated kidnapping as kidnapping when bodily harm is inflicted upon the victim. Norman has said the robbers did not directly harm Daniels.
Gaston and Rickey, and two others, also face charges in Newton and Jasper counties in Missouri.
Gaston and Rickey each is charged in Newton County with one count of first-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree robbery, three counts of felonious restraint and one count of armed criminal action.
Marty Rickey, 30, of Joplin, is charged in Newton County with one count each of second-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and felonious restraint.
Gaston is charged in Jasper County with manufacturing methamphetamine and receiving stolen property. James Rickey is charged there with first-degree burglary. Marty Rickey is charged with manufacturing a controlled substance. Gava Gaston, 43, also known as Gava Cooley, is charged in Jasper County with first-degree burglary and manufacturing a controlled substance.
The four were arrested Friday in Joplin. Search warrants were served at two Joplin addresses, and investigators said they found suspected stolen property and a methamphetamine lab.
Chris Jennings, chief deputy with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department, said the burglars have done home-repair work, including repaving driveways, around the area. He said he thinks that is how they identified their victims. Jennings led the investigation for the Tri-State Major Case Squad.
Charges also are expected to be filed in Ottawa County, Okla., in connection with home invasions there.
The defendants remain in the Jasper County Jail. Norman said he didn’t know when John Gaston and James Rickey might appear in court in Cherokee County on their charges.
“I believe the severity of our charges warrant bringing them here first,” Norman said. “I think that probably officials in Missouri and Oklahoma would agree with that. That’s basically how we worked with the Tri-State Major Case Squad. Obviously, we had a death involved in our case.”
Goodrich said in a news release that he would seek extradition of the defendants to Kansas.
Norman said he attended Daniels’ funeral in Weir and graveside services at a cemetery in Scammon on Wednesday.