Doniphan man found guilty of murder in deaths of two elderly Ripley County couples

A Butler County judge has found a Doniphan man guilty of murdering two elderly couples whose bodies were found inside their burned homes in 2010.

Keith A. Boyles, wearing a blue and white striped dress shirt and jeans, sat at the defense table flanked by his attorneys, Thomas Marshall and Heather Vodnansky with the Capital Public Defender’s Office, as Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett took the bench Friday afternoon.

“We are here today for the announcing” of the court’s verdict, said Pritchett, who indicated he had considered all the testimony presented during Boyles’ bench trial, as well as all the exhibits admitted into evidence.

During the three-day trial, Pritchett heard nearly 12 hours of testimony from 19 witnesses for the state and defense, and a total of about 200 exhibits were admitted into evidence.

Four times, Pritchett read: “the defendant, Keith A. Boyles, either acting alone or knowingly in concert with another, committed the Class A felony of murder in the first degree” on June 23, 2010, Boyles, after deliberation, knowingly caused the death of Loyd Piatt and Gladys Irene Piatt by shooting them, and on July 10, 2010, Boyles, after deliberation, knowingly caused the deaths of Edgar Atkinson and Bonnie Chase by shooting them.

Pritchett also found Boyles guilty of four felonies of armed criminal action (ACA) in that he, either acting alone or knowingly in concert with another,” committed each first-degree murder through the “use, assistance and aid of a deadly weapon.”

As Boyles sat facing Pritchett, he appeared unemotional as each verdict was read.

Pritchett subsequently ordered a sentencing assessment report (SAR) be completed by Probation and Parole and set sentencing for May 1.

The defense, according to Marshall, requested that Boyles not be interviewed for the SAR.

Boyles, who continues to be held without bond, faces life without the possibility of probation or parole on each of the murder charges. Each ACA carries a mandatory minimum of three years in prison.

Among those in the galley for the verdict was the Piatts’ daughter-in-law, Imetta Farrar.

“I’m happy with the judge’s decision,” she said. “I hope, somehow, something good can come out of this. … We will always miss them.”

Farrar described this as one of the biggest cases in Ripley County’s history because it involved “four deaths and all the people involved. It touched a lot of people in Ripley County.”

According to trial testimony, David Youngblood had his daughter, Chantale, and Boyles, who was her boyfriend at the time, kill the Piatts as a “test” for an upcoming plan he had to rob The Bank of Grandin and leave the country with the money.

The elder Youngblood, his daughter testified, dropped her and Boyles off near the Piatts home on June 23, 2010.

The then teens subsequently walked to the Piatts’ rural Doniphan home, where Chantale Youngblood says Boyles shot the couple, then they set the home on fire.

Firefighters would later find the Piatts’ bodies inside the rubble of their burned-out home.

Irene Piatt, 80, and Loyd Piatt, 77, were the aunt and uncle of David Youngblood.

While authorities initially thought the couple had died of smoke inhalation, they became suspicious when David Youngblood was among those arrested in connection with the July 10, 2010, deaths of Atkinson, 81, and Chase, 69.

The bodies of Atkinson and Chase were found in their burning Current View home. An autopsy determined Atkinson died of gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso. A cause of death for Chase was not immediately known.

As part of that investigation, the Piatts’ bodies were exhumed so autopsies could be performed to determine how they died. Both reportedly had been shot in the chest.

Chantale Youngblood testified she, Boyles and a friend accompanied her parents to the Atkinson/Chase home.

Upon arriving there, she said, Boyles and her parents entered the home.

While in the car listening to music with her friend, Chantale Youngblood said, they heard gunshots, and later entered the home “after the fact.”

Money and about 10 guns reportedly were stolen from the home.

In her testimony, Chantale Youngblood also confirmed she heard a conversation between her dad and Boyles in which “my dad said he shot Bonnie and (Boyles) shot Edgar.”

During the trial, Boyles’ attorneys presented testimony from witnesses who knew David Youngblood, some of whom had sold him guns around the time of the murders.

Another defense witness was a former Missouri State Highway Patrol criminalist, who testified extensively about DNA testing she completed in relation to Hi-Point and Ruger pistols as compared to DNA profiles from David Youngblood, Boyles and Chantale Youngblood.

The pistols were believed to be the weapons used to kill the couples.

After generating DNA profiles for the Youngbloods and Boyles, the witness said, she compared them to the DNA profiles she generated after swabbing the weapons.

In both instances, Chantale Youngblood and Boyles were eliminated as possible contributors to the DNA profiles. David Youngblood could not be eliminated.

As part of a plea deal for her testimony against Boyles, Chantale Youngblood is expected to be sentenced to 20 years on her remaining three counts on April 18. She earlier pleaded guilty to four Class A felonies of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years on one count.

Her father is serving four, consecutive life without parole sentences after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in connection each of the deaths.