A Ripley County man will spend the next 16 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections after his guilty plea Tuesday to murder and kidnapping charges.
Jerad Lynn Lloyd of Doniphan had been charged in the July 21, 2019, Ripley County death of 44-year-old Daniel L. Richardson.
With his attorney, Ted Liszewski, present, Lloyd pleaded guilty Tuesday to the Class A felony of second-degree murder and the Class B felony of first-degree kidnapping. A third charge was dropped by the state.
Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett accepted Lloyd’s plea and sentenced him to 16 years on the murder charge and 15 years on the kidnapping charge, according to court records.
Those sentences are to run concurrently.
The charges stemmed from an investigation by the Ripley County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol, which occurred after Richardson’s body was found burned in a vacant house off Highway 21, 10 miles north of Doniphan.
During interviews with witnesses and suspects, investigators were told Schylar Tubbs of Fairdealing and Cody Payne, David B. Scrivner Jr., Dawn Lloyd and Jerad Lloyd had traveled to Poplar Bluff just after midnight July 21 to find Richardson after his release from the Butler County jail.
“The purpose of the trip was to locate David Richardson and assault him as retaliation for Richardson’s earlier assault of Lloyd’s sister,” said Trooper Shannon Sitton at the time.
They reportedly drove a car borrowed from Derek Bunyard, also of Doniphan, who later was charged with tampering with evidence after allegedly cleaning his vehicle to get rid of evidence.
The six were charged with luring Richardson into a vehicle at a south Poplar Bluff convenience store and beating him while they drove back to Ripley County.
Earlier reports say as the group arrived at Bunyard’s home on Ripley County Route K, they all exited the vehicle and left Richardson tied up in the back seat. Approximately one hour later, Scrivner, Payne and J. Lloyd returned to the vehicle and found Richardson not moving.
According to Sitton’s probable cause affidavit at the time, the three “removed Richardson from the vehicle and put him in a cardboard barrel on the porch.” The following evening, “they, along with Scrivner, loaded the barrel into the bed of a Ford Ranger truck owned by Scrivner.”
The barrel was taken to the abandoned house, where it was unloaded into the house and used tires layered on top of it, Sitton said.
“Scrivner lighted a propane torch and laid it next to the barrel, igniting the barrel and the tires, and ultimately causing the home to burn,” said Sitton.