A Butler County judge heard extensive weapon- and neurological-related testimony Tuesday in the trial of a Doniphan man accused of the 2010 murders of two elderly couples found dead inside their burned homes.
Before the state rested its case at about 11:20 a.m., Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett heard testimony from the state’s final four witnesses in the trial of Keith A. Boyles.
The 26-year-old is standing trial on four Class A felonies of first-degree murder and four unclassified felonies of armed criminal action in connection with the deaths of Gladys Irene Piatt, 80, and Loyd Eugene Piatt, 77, as well as Edgar Atkinson, 81, and Bonnie Chase, 69.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeremy Weadon testified he and other officers executed a search warrant on the home of David and Melissa Youngbloods on July 16, 2010.
The Youngbloods lived in the mobile home, located off of Highway A in rural Ripley County, with their children, including Chantale Youngblood, as well as her boyfriend, Boyles.
According to Weadon, guns were among the items found and seized from within the home.
“I believe there were at least four pistols and two long guns,” said Weadon.
The guns were found in what Weadon described as the master bedroom of the trailer.
“One of the investigators lifted the box springs, (the pistols) were stuffed up inside the box springs” and fell to the floor, Weadon said. “… They were wrapped in clothing.”
The long guns were found in a closet, he said.
Outside, Weadon said, officers found “some clothing on a burn pile.”
Due to the nature of the crimes in which evidence (the homes and bodies) were burned, “they may have burned the clothing they were wearing/used,” Weadon said.
Weadon was asked by Assistant Attorney General Kevin Zoellner to identify the guns he had seized from the home, including two 9mm semiautomatic pistols, a Ruger and a Hi-Point.
On cross-examination, Weadon told Boyles’ attorney Thomas Marshall with the Capital Public Defender’s Office all the firearms were found in the master bedroom of David and Melissa Youngblood.
“My best memory, it was a box springs, the soft material underneath was missing,” said Weadon. “I don’t know if it was intentional or because it was so old, but they were shoved up underneath there.”
Evan Garrison, a criminalist in the firearms section of the patrol’s crime lab in Jefferson City, testified extensively on both direct and cross-examination about his examination of the Hi-Point and Ruger pistols and bullets/bullet fragments recovered from the bodies and from the Atkinson/Chase home.
Garrison said the Hi-Point “was eliminated” as the weapon that fired the bullets recovered from the Piatts’ bodies.
With practical certainty, Garrison said, the Piatts were killed by the Ruger.
Garrison said he eliminated the Ruger from firing the bullet fragment retrieved form Atkinson’s body; however the Hi-Point could not be eliminated.
Due to the damage, Garrison said, there were not enough details to make a determination on what weapon fired the bullet.
According to Garrison, the metal fragments, suspected of being possible bullet fragments found beneath Atkinson and Chase’s bodies, couldn’t be compared to either weapon. Both were described as melted metal fragments.
Joe Joiner, an officer with the Doniphan Police Department, testified he knew Boyles while he was an inmate in the Doniphan City Jail.
During what Joiner described as a random cell check to keep contraband, such as tobacco and drugs, out the jail, he found a letter in Boyles’ cell.
“For safety concern, I did read it,” Joiner said.
The envelope was addressed to David Youngblood, who also was an inmate in the Doniphan City Jail at that time.
The handwritten letter was dated July 19, 2010. It reportedly was written a short time after Boyles and David Youngblood were arrested and while they both were housed in the city jail.
Zoellner read the letter out loud to the court: “David, hey man. I don’t want to yell anything in here, so I guess I’ll write you to ask you want do you want me to do? Do you want me to get a lawyer and fight it?
“Should I take it to trial or what? I plan on doing what you do. If you plead guilty, I’m gonna.”
The letter further said: “I also want you to know I’m so sorry for getting your family into this. I want you to know you were a better dad to me than my dad.
“Also, this be awkward, but you know I love your daughter. Can you tell Chantale that I love her, and I’m not mad at her.”
Boyles went on to say he couldn’t “talk cause people always asleep in my cell.
“They don’t believe that I zoned out on 26 blue Xanax on the way to the auction in Hoxie, and the car started overheating.”
Before signing the letter as “your adopted son,” Boyles wrote that the “cops told me that you, Chantale and Lisa (Melissa Youngblood) all wrote statement against me. Well, I’ve got to go. I’m getting sleepy.”
The state’s final witness was Diane Moore, a former dispatcher at the Doniphan City Jail.
While Boyles was an inmate, Moore said, she saw a tattoo on his shoulder of the number four and asked to photograph it.
Moore confirmed she considered the tattoo as significant given Boyles was in custody for killing four people.
On cross-examination, Moore answered affirmatively the multiple questions Boyles’ attorney, Heather Vodnansky, asked regarding the time Boyles had been jailed at Doniphan. Boyles reportedly had been a good prisoner and had not caused problems while in the jail.
As far as when David Youngblood was a prisoner in the jail, Vodnansky asked Moore whether he was scary.
“He was to me,” Moore replied.
Moore subsequently agreed with Zoellner that other jail personnel may have different experiences with Boyles as she has not there 24-7.
After the state rested it’s case, the defense presented Pritchett with an affidavit from David Maynard stating he had attempted to locate two witnesses — Jennifer Matthews and Jared Pittman, but was unable to find them.
Marshall and Vodnansky then read portions of Matthews and Pittman’s earlier depositions to the court.
Robert Fucetola, an associate professor of neurology and nueropsycholgy at Washington University in St. Louis, testified he reviewed records and evaluated Boyles regarding his brain function and its implication on his behavior.
Fucetola reviewed Boyles’ medical, education and social services records, as well as information regarding the crimes Boyles is charged with, including a transcript of Chantale Youngblood’s prior testimony.
Boyles, according to Fucetola, suffered from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHA) and had been “clearly diagnosed” with behavioral issues.
Fucetola said ADHA has a direct effect on a person’s brain function, slowing the brain’s development, including its impulse control.
Sufferers, he said, tend to make poor choices and lie.
Boyles, he said, was treated by a doctor with medication for the ADHA; however, the medication was taken intermittently as family members didn’t adhere to his treatment.
“Based on evidence of scientific studies, the ability to put the brakes on behavior” and impulse control also continue into a person’s 20s, Fucetola said. Boyles was 18 at the time of the alleged offenses.
Fucetola cited Boyles as having multiple “venerabilities,” including his ADHA, poverty and physical/psychological maltreatment.
All, he said, have a direct effect on brain function.
The alcohol and drugs Boyles was reported to be using around the time of the murders, Fucetola said, also would have had a negative effect on his brain function.
On cross-examination, Fucetola reiterated that Boyles’ “chronological age” and his ADHA “is enough to know with certainty, he is less capable of impulse control.”
Fucetola described these crimes as a “terribly impulsive incident.”
In his evaluation of Boyles, Fucetola confirmed he did not ask “about his crimes.”