High court upholds death sentences

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the convictions and death sentences of a north-central Missouri man seeking to cover up his methamphetamine operation.

John Middleton of Spickard, Mo., was convicted in two separate trials for three 1995 killings and received three death sentences. The appeal decided Tuesday dealt with two of those slayings.

In a unanimous decision written by Judge Duane Benton, the state's highest court rejected numerous arguments that Middleton's attorneys were ineffective and that prosecutors had struck secret deals to turn witnesses against Middleton.

Middleton was convicted in 1997 of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the June 1995 shooting death of Alfred Pinegar, 29, of Davis City, Iowa.

While awaiting trial for Pinegar's killing, Middleton admitted to another inmate that he killed Stacy Hodge, 21, and Randy Hamilton, 39, both of Spickard, because he believed they were informing authorities about his methamphetamine operation, the court ruling said.

Their bodies were found in the truck of a car in Mercer County about two weeks after Pinegar's body was discovered in a remote area of Grundy County. All three had been shot to death.

Middleton was convicted of their killings in a 1998 trial.

During the penalty phase, his attorney argued that years of methamphetamine use had made Middleton similar to a paranoid schizophrenic who lacked the mental understanding to be held accountable for first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

During the guilt phase of the trial, however, Middleton's attorney called no witnesses, instead attacking the credibility of the state's witnesses and arguing that prosecutors had not proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

As part of his ineffective counsel appeal to the Supreme Court, Middleton had argued that his mental state should have been an issue during the guilt phase of the trial. The Supreme Court said Middleton's trial attorney used a reasonable strategy.