Legislator says law won't be changed in response to 2009 Cape shootings

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Despite a Southeast Missouri family's hope that state lawmakers would consider upping the maximum sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, Republican Stanley Cox, chairman of the judiciary committee, said Thursday there will be no such legislation.

Cox, approached by House Speaker Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, to research the proposed Orman Law, determined recently there was no weakness in the Missouri statute that makes the punishment for conspiracy to commit murder five to 15 years in prison.

"There's always things we can do to make the criminal justice system better, but in this case I don't think it needs to be done," said Cox, a former prosecuting attorney in Pettis County.

Kelly Yates and Bruce Orman think the consequence for the crime is not harsh enough. They would have liked to see it increased to a minimum of 25 years in prison. Yates is sister to Jamie Lynn Orman, a Cape Girardeau woman killed Oct. 27, 2009, and Bruce Orman is father to Derrick Orman, a teenage victim in the shootings.

So before the one-year anniversary of their family members' deaths, they approached Tilley to see what he could bring to Jefferson City. "To me, Michelle Lawrence in this case is getting off way too easy and Samuel Hughes is getting off too easy, too," Orman said.

Lawrence was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the case after authorities determined she plotted with Hughes and Ryan Patterson to kill John Lawrence, her estranged husband, to collect insurance money. John Lawrence was not in the home the night of the killings, only Orman and her sons. Orman's unborn child also died in the killings. While Jamie Orman's family understood any legislative changes wouldn't apply to their case, still pending with the court, they thought it could help future cases.

"If something like this happens to anyone else, we want to make sure everyone involved gets the maximum sentence they should get, instead of some piddly little charge," Orman said. "I can see the whole ordeal of having a plea bargain, but if you take three people's lives, you shouldn't plea bargain where they can get out in possibly 10 years."

In addition to working through the statute, Cox said he spoke to Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle and to the victims' family members.

"I was trying to determine if there was some weakness in the law or something else that needed to be looked at," Cox said. "It's my determination that there is nothing in the particular statute that has interfered here."

Swingle didn't return calls for comment Thursday.

At a motion hearing in November, Patterson's trial was set to begin in August, with jury selection beginning July 28 in Pemiscot County. He's charged with three counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action, burglary and attempted arson. Lawrence is in custody awaiting a May hearing, and Hughes pleaded guilty to a reduced second-degree murder charge in January. The plea is in exchange for his testimony at Patterson's trial.

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