Joseph asked for an attorney several times during police interview

George Joseph asked for his attorney several times during a conversation with police in which he confessed to the murders of his wife and son, two Cape Girardeau officers acknowledged in court Friday.

Joseph, 48, faces charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in connection with the May 30 shooting deaths of his wife, Mary, and 18-year-old son, Matthew, at their home on West Cape Rock Drive.

That morning, Joseph suffered a gunshot wound to the head, for which he was being treated in the intensive care unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis when Detective Sgt. Don Perry and Cpl. Jeff Bonham of the Cape Girardeau Police Department interviewed him June 4.

Last month, Joseph's attorney, Bryan Greaser, filed a motion to suppress a recording of the nearly two-hour conversation.

After hearing testimony from Perry and Bonham at a hearing on the motion Friday, Judge Benjamin Lewis took the matter under advisement and set deadlines for attorneys on both sides to file briefs in the case.

During the hearing, Perry acknowledged Joseph said five or six times he wanted to talk to his attorney.

"He asked for his attorney up front?" Greaser asked.

"Yes, sir," Perry said.

Later in the hearing, Perry confirmed Joseph had asked for his attorney by name.

"He told you at this time, 'Not only do I want to call a lawyer, I want to call my lawyer, Bryan Greaser'?" Greaser said.

Joseph initially referred to Greaser as "Bryan Schaefer," at which point Perry asked whether he meant Greaser, which Joseph said he did, Perry confirmed.

Bonham acknowledged he and Perry kept talking to Joseph after he asked for Greaser.

"You guys told him, 'If that's what you want, we're going to end the conversation,' and he said yes?" Greaser asked.

"That sounds right," Bonham said.

Greaser asked why they continued the conversation after that point.

"He was the only living witness to what had happened," Bonham answered.

Bonham would not characterize Joseph as a suspect in the case the day of the interview.

"We weren't 100 percent sure. We weren't going to have tunnel vision on one thing," he said. " ... He could have been a suspect."

Perry told assistant prosecuting attorney Angel Woodruff the purpose of the trip to St. Louis was to collect fingerprints and a DNA sample and find out whether police needed to search for additional suspects.

Joseph "assured me on several occasions that there was no one else to look for," Perry said.

Perry and Bonham both emphasized they were not asking "guilt-seeking questions."

"He was not in custody. He was not contained. He was not being asked any guilt-seeking questions," Bonham said.

Perry told Woodruff that Joseph confirmed his suspicion that health problems, financial issues and allegations of fraud might have led him to violence.

"He said yes; acknowledged ... that the pressures had gotten to him," Perry said.

He said he did not press Joseph for details and told him repeatedly he did not have to talk to police, but Joseph volunteered he had shot himself in the pool and walked up the steps.

"I didn't ask him for that detail," Perry said.

Responding to questions by Woodruff and Greaser, Perry said he did not know what, if any, medications Joseph might have taken, but he was conscious, alert and "very coherent" the entire time the officers were in his room.

"Generally, people on medication will have slurred speech. They'll be drowsy, fall asleep," Perry told Greaser. " ... He never drifted off. ... He didn't have slurred speech. What conversation he did have didn't change topics in midstream."

Perry told Woodruff that Joseph reinforced his clarity at the end of the conversation, when Bonham mentioned the date of the interview for the record, mistakenly gave the wrong month, and Joseph corrected him.

Lewis set an Oct. 25 deadline for Greaser to file a brief supporting his motion. Prosecutors then will have until Nov. 1 to file a reply, he said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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