Marble Hill man guilty in killing plot

It was a good thing Gary Eldridge of Jackson didn't check his voice mail on Aug. 10, 2003. Timothy Lincoln of Marble Hill, Mo., left a message on it that could have been fatal.

Lincoln was found guilty Thursday in Bollinger County of attempted murder and possession of a firearm while intoxicated in connection with that phone message. He will be sentenced Aug. 13.

Lincoln left the following message that day: "Gary, you don't know me, but my name is Tim. We need to get together and talk about some things. I will meet you at Rhodes at the corner of 34 and 25, and we can discuss our problem at 5 o'clock p.m. Also, don't tell Patti about this. We need to deal with this man to man."

Lincoln suspected Eldridge of having a relationship with his live-in girlfriend, Patti Palmer. She and Eldridge worked together.

That afternoon a teenage witness saw Lincoln making a drawing of a man's head to use as a target. He told the teenager he was going to shoot someone that day. He was also seen at his home firing range practicing on the target with a rifle. Jackson police would later say that by looking at the bullet holes in the target, Lincoln would have hit his mark.

Fifteen minutes before Lincoln expected to see Eldridge arrive at the Rhodes 101 station on Jackson's busiest intersection -- steps away from the police station -- he parked his pickup truck on the parking lot of the Ceramo Co., approximately 60 yards from the Rhodes station. He had a rifle with a high-powered scope, binoculars and 43 bullets.

Some employees at the Rhodes store saw him aiming the rifle in their direction and called the police. Officers Paul Kembel and Darrell Sievers arrested the intoxicated Lincoln. He registered a blood alcohol content of .171 percent, more than twice the legal limit.

Cape Girardeau County Prosecutor Morley Swingle said that Lincoln told the arresting officers he wasn't going to shoot Eldridge, but just confront him. When he was arrested the gun was not loaded, but a clip with three rounds was tucked in the driver's side door pouch.

"Our position was if he's just going to confront him, he would have been at Rhodes 101, not across the street with a scope and high-powered rifle," Swingle said.

The first Eldridge knew he was in any danger was when Jackson police called him after arresting Lincoln. He had not checked his messages that day, and wouldn't have shown up anyway.

He and Palmer testified in court that while they knew each other, they were not romantically involved. At the time of Lincoln's arrest, Eldridge said he had no idea why Lincoln would suspect him of seeing Palmer. He said Palmer seemed to be "petty well devoted" to Lincoln.

Thursday's trial was originally scheduled to continue into Friday, but Circuit Judge John P. Heisserer gave the eight-man, four-woman jury the option to finish the trial that day. Closing arguments wound up at 9:05 p.m., and the jury delivered its verdict at 12:35 a.m. Friday.

Because Lincoln has a felony record, he was charged as a prior offender. This takes the burden of punishment off the jury and puts it on Heisserer. Lincoln faces a sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the attempted murder charge and a maximum of a year in the county jail and a $1,000 fine for possession of a firearm while intoxicated.

He has been in the Cape Girardeau County Jail in lieu of a $300,000 bond since he was arrested.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160