Convicted murderer Mark Gill receives life sentence in retrial of penalty phase

A Boone County, Missouri, jury sentenced convicted murderer Mark Gill to life in prison without the possibility of probation or parole rather than the death sentence he originally received in 2004.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh said Monday the latest sentence brings an end to a 15-year-old capital-murder case that was the subject of appeals.

Gill and Justin Brown were accused of first-degree murder in the 2002 death of Ralph Lape Jr., who lived in Cape Girardeau County.

Prosecutors accused the men of abducting Lape from his home near Jackson, shooting him and burying him in a New Madrid County, Missouri, cornfield as part of an effort to steal money Lape had received in a legal settlement with the Frisco Railroad.

In 2004, Gill was tried in New Madrid County. A jury convicted of first-degree murder and ultimately sentenced him to death.

In 2006, a jury in Waynesville, Missouri, convicted Brown and sentenced him to life imprisonment without the possible of probation or parole. Then-Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney Morley Swingle had sought the death penalty as he had done in the Gill case two years earlier.

Gill’s conviction and sentence initially were upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court, Limbaugh said.

After filing appeals, Gill filed a post-conviction motion alleging his original defense attorney was ineffective in violation of his Constitutional rights, Limbaugh said.

In 2010, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld Gill’s conviction but reversed the sentence. The case was moved to Boone County, where Swingle sought the death penalty again.

When Limbaugh took office, he continued the legal effort to have Gill sentenced to death.

“I thought it was appropriate under the circumstances,” Limbaugh said of seeking the death penalty.

The retrial of the penalty phase began May 10 in Columbia, Missouri. Jury selection took four days, said Limbaugh, who shared prosecution duties with Missouri assistant attorney general Kevin Zoellner.

The prosecution presented its case May 16 and 17. That evidence included the testimony of investigators who unearthed the body and the New Mexico state trooper who arrested Gill.

Lt. Phil Gregory of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, who took Gill’s confession, and two Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department detectives also testified.

The defense presented “mitigation evidence” for the next three days about Gill’s background and “subsequent good behavior in prison,” Limbaugh said in a news release issued Monday.

On Saturday, the jury deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours before settling on a life sentence for Gill.

Lape’s sister, Diane Miller of Cape Girardeau, said she and other members of the family attended all the hearings and trials over the years.

Miller said Gill apologized to the family for his crime after the latest verdict. Miller said she told Gill she hoped he was “truly sorry.”

Miller said she and other relatives “couldn’t do anything to help Ralph” but wanted to make sure neither Gill nor Brown hurt anyone else.

The death penalty was warranted in this case because of the “cold-bloodedness of it,” she said.

But Miller said she and her family have accepted the jury’s verdict.

“We can’t live our lives being angry,” she said.

Miller said she and her relatives weren’t the only ones hurt by the crime. Gill’s family suffered too, she said.

“There were many victims in this case,” she said.

Gill will be sentenced formally June 26, Limbaugh said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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