High court overturns two death sentences

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Supreme Court overturned the conviction and death sentence Tuesday of a man who killed his wife and wounded four others in a 1992 shooting rampage at the St. Louis County courthouse.

The state's highest court also ordered a new sentencing hearing for a convicted killer who was sentenced to death by a Dallas County judge after a jury initially returned a life sentence, then said it was deadlocked.

In the case of Kenneth Baumruk, the Supreme Court said "there is no question, based on the evidence at trial, that Baumruk shot and killed his wife." But in a 4-3 decision, the court ordered a new trial to be held outside of St. Louis County.

"The circumstances of this trial, held where the shootings occurred, are inherently prejudicial and denied Baumruk his right to a fair trial," Judge Michael Wolff wrote for the majority. "The jurors, in effect, sat at the murder scene."

The court's decision said St. Louis County Circuit Judge Mark Seigel should have granted a change of venue for Baumruk's 2001 trial -- just as a previous judge had done when Baumruk originally was indicted in 1993.

After Baumruk's first case was transferred, a Macon County judge found him incompetent to stand trial due to brain injuries he suffered when police shot him at the courthouse.

Baumruk was sent to a mental health facility. But a Callaway County jury found him capable of handling his personal affairs in 1996, and the Supreme Court subsequently ordered the original charges to be dropped.

In 1998, a St. Louis County grand jury returned a new 18-count indictment against Baumruk, including a charge of first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Mary Baumruk.

Baumruk shot his wife during a divorce hearing and wounded both his attorney and his wife's attorney. Baumruk then ran down the courthouse hallways, wounding a bailiff and security officer as hundreds of others fled the building in downtown Clayton. The rampage ended when police officers shot Baumruk nine times, including twice in the head.

In a dissent Tuesday, Judge Duane Benton said the disputed issues of Baumruk's state of mind, deliberation and sentence were not affected by holding the trial in the courthouse where the shootings occurred.

Likewise, St. Louis County was a proper place for the trial, considering its population of 1 million is larger than that of seven states, Benton wrote.

Benton was joined in dissent by Chief Justice Stephen Limbaugh Jr. and Judge William Ray Price Jr.

Joining Wolff in the majority were Judges Ronnie White, Laura Denvir Stith and Richard Teitelman.

Also Tuesday, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentences of Kenneth Thompson, who was convicted of killing his estranged wife's parents -- Clarence and Arlene Menning -- by repeatedly hitting them in the head with a maul handle at their trailer home in August 1996.

The ruling means Thompson could undergo a third sentencing hearing. The Supreme Court also had overturned his death sentences in 1999 because evidence had been admitted about other alleged crimes for which Thompson had not been convicted.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court said Dallas County Circuit Judge Theodore B. Scott should have done a better job of questioning confused jurors during Thompson's second sentencing hearing.