Man says wife died in struggle for gun

SIKESTON, Mo. -- A Sikeston man is awaiting arraignment for the Thursday shooting death of his wife.

Stevie Cordale Lott, 41, was formally charged Friday by the Scott County Prosecuting Attorney's office with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a child, tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution and being a prior offender leaving the scene of a shooting.

According to a probable-cause statement, Det. Flint Dees with Sikeston Department of Public Safety said officers responded to a 911 call about 3 a.m. Thursday from a subject who identified himself at Steve Lott. Lott told the operator he and his wife, 26-year-old Nyketia Lott, were arguing at their home on the 400 block of John R. Boulevard and a gun went off and shot her. Lott said his wife had been shot in the head and was not breathing.

Officers arrived at the home and received no response from inside the residence or at the phone from which the 911 call was made. They entered the front door, which was open and did not find Lott, according to the statement.

Officers found Nyketia Lott's 2-year-old son asleep in a bedroom, unharmed. They then found Nyketia, who was lying on the floor of another bedroom and lodged, between a bed and a wall, the statement said. She had an injury to the back of her head and had lost a large amount of blood, which was on the bed, floor, wall and various parts of her body, according to the statement.

A few minutes after officers responded, Nyketia Lott's mother, Theresa Jones, arrived and said she had received a phone call from Stevie Lott telling her that her daughter had been shot.

About an hour and a half later, a detective went to Stevie Lott's parents' residence in Sikeston and met with his brother, L.C. Shaw, according to the statement. Shaw told the detective he had just talked to Lott, who had given him a gun. The officer then took into evidence a 9 mm pistol with six live rounds in the clip, the statement said.

According to the probable cause statement, Shaw said Stevie Lott told him he and his wife were arguing, and she pulled out a pistol, put it to her head and said she was "going to end it." He said Lott told him he tried to take the gun away from her to kill himself, and it went off and shot her in the head, the statement said.

At that time, Lott walked out from the middle of the block with his hands up and said he was unarmed, the statement said. He had blood stains on his clothes, hands and arms. The detective then placed Lott under arrest, according to the statement.

During an interview by officers a short time later, Stevie Lott said he and his wife had arrived home about 2 a.m., and he was in the kitchen cooking a hamburger, according to the statement. He said he walked into the front room as his wife was shutting the front door, the statement said.

Lott said when he asked her who was at the door, she told him who it was and she said she was planning to smuggle marijuana in to the prison in Charleston, Mo., where she was employed as a guard, and that by doing so, she would make enough money to purchase a new vehicle, according to the statement.

Lott said he believed the person at the door had delivered the drugs to his wife and they began to argue, the statement said. He said at some point during the argument, Nyketia Lott went to the bedroom and removed a pistol from under a dresser, held the gun to her head and said she was going to end it all. According to the statement, Stevie Lott said she shot herself during the struggle as he was attempting to take the gun from her.

Lott said he touched her hands in the struggle, but not the metal of the gun, the statement said. When asked to demonstrate how she was shot, he said he could not remember.

An autopsy conducted Thursday at Mineral Area Regional Medical Center in Farmington determined Nyketia Lott's official cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back of her head, according to Scott County Coroner Scott Amick.

Stevie Lott, who remains in custody at the Scott County Jail, has had at least 13 prior arrests, with three felony convictions of assault, armed criminal action and involuntary manslaughter. Bond is set at $250,000 cash only.

Pertinent address:

400 block of John R. Boulevard, Sikeston, Mo.