Man accused of highway patrolman's 2005 shooting will be tried Jan. 12

The family of slain Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Dewayne Graham expected to see Lance Shockley tried Aug. 11 for capital murder in the shooting death of their loved one in March 2005.

Instead, after the latest in a long series of delays involved appointing new attorneys for Shockley, Carter County Circuit Judge David Evans announced at a hearing Wednesday in Carter County that the trial has been moved to Jan. 12 instead.

The last delay came in July when Evans accepted a sealed motion from Shockley's two defense attorneys, Jan Zembles and Tom Marshall, requesting that they both be pulled from the case.

A new attorney, Thomas J. Jacquinot of Kansas City, Mo., was appointed for Shockley on Wednesday.

The last delay took a toll on the family, said Edna Cross, Graham's aunt.

"That boy of ours, we all have a hole in our heart," she said.

Shockley has been transferred from one facility to another over the past two years while the case has stretched on, having served time in Cape Girardeau, St. Genevieve, Mississippi and Howell counties. The moves have come at the request of Shockley and of his attorneys.

Cross said she felt like the case was moving toward closure when Cape Girardeau County Circuit Judge William L. Syler recused himself after being the judge of record for a year and a half.

"Then we had to start all over," she said.

Graham was 37 years old when he was shot to death in front of his rural home near Van Buren, Mo., where he served with the Missouri State Highway Patrol as zone supervisor. Lance Shockley was arrested within days of the killing and was charged with the crime. Shockley allegedly had played a part in a hit-and-run accident that had been under investigation by Sgt. Graham at the time of the shooting.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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