TWO ARE FOUND INNOCENT IN '98 KILLING AT SIKESTON

BENTON, Mo. -- Two men have been acquitted of murder but found guilty of robbery, closing one part of a series of trials that will continue in Cape Girardeau County next month.

Michael Bell of Sikeston, Mo., and Orlandis Farr of Malden, Mo., were found guilty of robbing the Kellett's Oil Co., a former Sikeston gas station, in 1998 after a jury deliberated for more than seven hours on Friday.

The eight-man, four-woman jury decided Bell and Farr were innocent of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 31-year-old gas station attendant Charles Garrett.

Another defendant charged with killing Garrett, Darius Nicholson of Columbia, Mo., will have his second trial beginning Sept. 11. A Cape Girardeau County jury could not reach a unanimous verdict during his first trial in June.

Bell's attorney, Stephen Wilson of Cape Girardeau, doesn't believe charges should have been brought against Bell or Farr.

The two men had been implicated by Michael Hatcher of Sikeston, who pleaded guilty to robbery in an agreement made with the Missouri attorney general's office. Hatcher received 10 years in prison after agreeing to testify against Bell, Farr and Nicholson.

Hatcher has maintained in court that Nicholson shot Garrett.

Wilson said he counted at least 27 statements made by Hatcher during last week's trial that contradict his previous testimonies under oath.

Special prosecutor Marvin Teer of the attorney general's office was not available to comment on Monday.

Based on Hatcher's testimony and other evidence, the jury recommended Bell receive 15 years imprisonment for robbery and Farr 10 years.

"I was upset with the verdict because Hatcher's testimony was totally inconsistent," Wilson said.

Hatcher had changed the location where he and the other three were before the robbery from a place referred to as "the club" to a residence, Wilson said.

Bell and Farr will be sentenced by Circuit Judge John Grimm on Oct. 6. Grimm, of Cape Girardeau, was appointed by the Missouri Supreme Court to hear all three cases, although Bell's and Farr's were combined into one four-day jury trial.

Over two years, the shape of the cases against the three men has been altered several times, said Kent Hall, Nicholson's attorney.

A change of venue to New Madrid County was granted. Then the attorney general's office was brought in to seek the death penalty against Nicholson but reconsidered. Trial dates were set twice only to have the charges dropped and refiled. The prosecutor asked to try all three in court at the same time until Hall requested a venue change to Cape Girardeau County.

"It has been a tortured history to get to this point," Hall said.

Paula Garrett, whose son was killed in the robbery, said it has been hard for her, too. Charles Garrett was one of her 11 children, and she said she is sure that the men charged were responsible for his death.