Relatives of suspect in trooper slaying face new charges

Three relatives of a man charged with killing a Missouri state trooper are accused of related counts, ranging from showing up at the prosecutor's house -- ostensibly to intimidate him -- to perjury and evidence tampering.

Lance Shockley, 28, of Van Buren, was charged March 29 with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the ambush shooting nine days earlier of patrol Sgt. Carl Dewayne Graham Jr. outside the trooper's home near Van Buren.

Investigators believe that Lance Shockley killed Graham, 37, after the investigator focused on him as a suspect in a hit-and-run Carter County wreck last November that killed Jeffrey Bayless. Shockley was arrested March 23 and charged with leaving the scene of that accident.

On Friday, authorities allege that Shockley's wife, 23-year-old Coree Shockley, drove to the home of Carter County Prosecutor Michael Ligons, with no legitimate reason to be there.

For that, Coree Shockley was charged with second-degree assault on a law enforcement officer and was ordered jailed on $100,000 bond. She already had been charged with evidence tampering for allegedly removing ammunition from the couple's home after the slaying.

Two other relatives were newly charged Friday after Coree Shockley's preliminary hearing.

Coree's sister, Cynthia Chilton, was charged with perjury, accused of giving different information on the witness stand at Friday's hearing from what she previously had told investigators.

Chilton's fiance was Bayless, killed in the November accident allegedly involving Lance Shockley.

Also on Friday, Coree Shockley's mother, Sherry Chilton Keeney, 52, was charged with evidence tampering.

State troopers investigating Graham's death said Cynthia Chilton told them March 21 that the day after the wreck, Lance Shockley drove her to the scene, told her he had been driving and insisted he did not know how the accident happened.

But Chilton testified Friday she never had a conversation with Lance Shockley about the accident and had never told authorities about that supposed conversation, according to the probable cause affidavit charging her with perjury.

In Sherry Keeney's case, the patrol alleges that on March 30, a talk between three Shockley relatives was recorded about ammunition that Coree Shockley delivered March 20 -- the day of Graham's death -- to Robert Shockley.

When Sherry Chilton Keeney learned that Lance and Coree Shockley's fingerprints were on the ammunition box, she allegedly said, "I don't know, I guess if you go home, wipe, wipe it off."

Listed numbers could not be found for Coree Shockley and Cynthia Chilton Monday. A message was left for Sherry Chilton Keeney.

Bond for Chilton and her mother was set at $20,000 apiece.