Murder charges filed in 2014 Cape Girardeau shooting death

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh filed first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges against Terrance Bernard Vance, 29, of Cape Girardeau in the shooting death of Anthony Hempstead on June 28, 2014.

Vance is incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections in a prison in northwest Missouri, Limbaugh said. Vance was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to second-degree robbery Sept. 15, 2014; that sentence runs concurrent to a seven-year sentence on a probation violation for possession of controlled substance from May 5, 2014.

Limbaugh will file to have Vance moved from prison. He said it may take a month to get Vance to Cape Girardeau County and assigned counsel.

The murder investigation by Cape Girardeau police and the Cape Girardeau and Bollinger County Major Case Squad involved five key interviews since July 2014 — one with Vance himself when he was in custody in Sikeston, Missouri, according to the probable-cause statement by Detective Joe Thomas.

The most recent interview took place Jan. 21 with a witness to the shooting, according to the statement. Limbaugh said Detective Jeff Bonham was interviewing the witness about an unrelated matter when he brought up the information that led to the murder charge being filed. Detectives then went back and collected all the other evidence in the case.

The witness interviewed Jan. 21 said he and another man had just bought marijuana from Hempstead, and the three of them were waiting on the sidewalk near 423 S. Benton St., the statement said.

Vance, known by the nickname “Gangsta,” approached the men, stating he would be right back, according to the statement. Vance came back with a pistol and shot at Hempstead three or four times, at which point Vance and a second witness ran north. The witness being interviewed said he and Hempstead ran south, according to the statement. The witness thought Hempstead was shot in the leg because he was limping as he ran, according to the statement.

The witness identified Vance in a lineup, the statement said.

That witness confirmed the events of another witness who talked to police July 3, 2014, according to the statement.

Police found Hempstead lying in an alley east of 830 Jefferson Ave. with “multiple, fatal, gunshot wounds,” the probable-cause statement said. Investigators found out a suspect in the shooting went by Gangsta and was in a relationship with a woman in the vicinity, according to the statement.

During an interview with police March 26, the woman said she heard three to four gunshots when Vance left her porch, the statement said. When she asked him about it later, he originally denied he had done anything but then told her, “I didn’t even look at him when I shot him,” according to the statement.

Vance was interviewed July 14, 2014, by Bonham when he was in custody in Sikeston, according to the statement. He denied being in Cape Girardeau at the time of the homicide, stating he was in St. Louis with a different woman. That woman told police Sept. 30, 2014, Vance asked her to lie on his behalf before he was arrested by the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, according to the statement.

Vance’s bond is set at $500,000, cash only.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address:

423 S. Benton St., Cape Girardeau, MO

830 Jefferson Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO