Inmate garners more charges for allegedly setting off sprinkler system

A Sedgewickville, Mo., man in the Cape Girardeau County Jail awaiting an April jury trial was bound over Thursday to Circuit Court Division II on unrelated additional charges.

Michael Wayne Berry, 26, was charged with a class B felony count of possession of a prohibited article in a county jail -- a cigarette lighter -- and a count of misdemeanor tampering.

On the second charge, Berry is accused of holding a cigarette lighter to the sprinkler head in his jail cell, reportedly causing the fire alarm to activate and water to be sprayed. The sprinkler was also allegedly damaged.

Berry was arrested nearly a year ago on Feb. 13, following a two-car accident near Gordonville that killed Rebecca Larkin, 36, the wife of a local minister, Darren Larkin, 39, of Chaffee, Mo. Berry was jailed after being released from the hospital for treatment of injuries he received in that accident and charged with involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree assault with vehicular injury, driving while revoked, driving without insurance and failing to register his vehicle.

Berry appeared Thursday before Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp who said he found probable cause for Berry to be bound over to face the additional charges in Division II. Kamp scheduled Berry to appear before Judge Ben Lewis Feb. 14.

Cape Girardeau County sheriff's deputy Matthew Proffer testified before Kamp that Berry had flooded his cell Dec. 15 by allegedly tampering with and damaging the sprinkler head.

Deputy Anthony Gremaud testified that he searched Berry, who was in a holding cell while jail personnel mopped up the water from his cell. During the search, Gremaud said, he found a green cigarette lighter hidden in the insole of Berry's shoe in a spot that had been cut out to conceal the lighter. In his probable cause statement, Proffer noted that Berry allegedly also tampered with the sprinkler head in the holding cell.

Both the shoe and the working lighter were presented as evidence. Inmates are not allowed to have lighters while in jail.

Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said after the hearing that neither he nor the sheriff's department knows how Berry got hold of a cigarette lighter.

Berry remains in the Cape Girardeau County Jail for these new charges, the charges resulting from the Larkin accident, and other unrelated traffic charges. He is scheduled for a jury trial April 19 and 20 for the charges surrounding the Larkin accident.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160