Witnesses in Van Buren man's murder trial recount finding body

WEST PLAINS, Mo. -- A Carter County jury heard emotional testimony and viewed crime scene and autopsy photographs Tuesday, the second day of a murder trial in the case of a man charged with killing a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer.

Lance Shockley, 32, of Van Buren, Mo., is accused of gunning down Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. in his driveway March 20, 2005, after he came home from work.

Shockley is standing trial on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with Graham's death, and a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident. The trial was moved to Howell County from Carter County, where Shockley and Graham both lived. Shockley could face the death penalty if convicted.

The state has alleged Shockley's motive for killing Graham stemmed from a Nov. 26, 2004, fatal crash that left Jeffrey R. Bayless dead and in which Shockley allegedly fled the scene. Graham was the investigating officer.

The state's first witness Tuesday was Judy Hogan, a woman whose husband owned a nearby business. She told jurors how she found Graham's body lying face up beside his patrol car, which was backed into his driveway. One of the doors, she said, was open.

"I walked over to him to see if he was still alive," she said. He wasn't.

Not wanting to leave Graham, she said, she called her husband, whose shop was about 200 yards down a private lane from Graham's house.

"I told him the trooper had been shot, he was dead and he needed to call for help," Hogan said.

Trooper Artie Trobeck testified that when he was first contacted by Troop G Headquarters at 5:18 p.m., he only knew shots had been fired north of his location on Route M. As he headed north on Route M, he contacted Troop G, asking for a specific location. Trobeck said he was told the shots fired were at Graham's residence.

Trobeck said he initially thought a hunter "stumbled onto Dewayne's property, not that Dewayne had been shot."

When he arrived at 5:24 p.m., Trobeck, who was emotional on the stand at times, said he found Graham "had been shot in the face. I could tell it was a shotgun blast to the forehead/face."

Thinking Graham's shotgun may have accidentally discharged, Trobeck said, he checked and found it to be untouched in his patrol car.

Trobeck said he notified emergency medical service personnel and his supervisor, then Cpl. Craig Ponder.

Dr. Michael Zaricor, pathologist at Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington, Mo., walked the jury through his autopsy on Graham and his findings.

Shotgun pellets penetrated the left side of Graham's face and his left shoulder through his uniform, Zaricor said. The shotgun blast was fired "almost horizontal" to Graham's body, he said.

It wasn't until Zaricor undressed Graham that he found a pinpoint hole in the back of his shirt.

The hole, he said, was caused by a bullet that penetrated Graham's bulletproof vest, spiraled and left a "big hole" as it exited the vest and entered Graham.

That bullet, Zaricor said, transected Graham's spinal cord, paralyzing him. Graham, he said, also suffered a fractured skull from falling backward after he was shot.

Several criminal investigators with the highway patrol's Division of Drug and Crime Control also walked the jury through the scene at Graham's house, as well as the evidence seized there and at Shockley's residence.

Ralph Shockley, uncle of Lance Shockley, told the jury his nephew's wife, Coree Shockley, brought him a box of .243-caliber ammunition on the evening of March 20, 2005, saying "Lance said you would know what to do with this."

Ballistics tests reportedly indicate the bullet retrieved from Graham's body may have been fired by a .243-caliber rifle. The state alleges Lance Shockley owned one, but it was not found when officers searched his residence and property.