Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder in stepdaughter's shooting

Ricky Lee Schweain, 55, of Cape Girardeau pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder, admitting he shot and killed his stepdaughter, Melissa Luttrell, 27, on March 26.

"I shot her; I can't deny it," he told Judge Benjamin Lewis.

Schweain then described the circumstances of the shooting that occurred near Gordonville, saying he pointed a .22-caliber pistol he knew was loaded at Luttrell and pulled the trigger.

"I just snapped from everything," he said.

"You may have lost your better judgment, but it wasn't an accident," Lewis said.

Lewis scheduled a sentencing hearing for 2 p.m. Jan. 15.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Angel Woodruff recommended a 30-year sentence -- which effectively is life with parole, Lewis said. Lewis told Schweain he faces a sentence between 10 and 30 years, and he would be required to serve 80 percent of the sentence.

As a part of the plea, Woodruff dropped a felony count of armed criminal action.

After Schweain shot Luttrell in the left side of the chest in the kitchen of his home at 3511 State Highway F, he shot himself twice in the chest, according to a probable-cause statement from Cape Girardeau County sheriff's deputy Jamie Malugen.

Schweain told deputies four days later Luttrell had been threatening him for a long time and to have her friends beat him up, Malugen wrote.

On Monday, he said there was not even an argument before he shot Luttrell.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: 3511 State Highway F, Cape Girardeau, Mo.