Welty murder case goes to jury

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — Thirteen years old or not, Owen Welty had the telescopic rifle, the opportunity and the motive to kill his neighbor, prosecutor Briney Welborn said during closing arguments Thursday in the boy's murder trial.

But defense attorney Scott Rosenblum outlined a case he says police bungled from the start. He said the rush to judgment has put the boy behind bars for more than two years despite what he called a lack of evidence that Welty, now 15, had anything to do with the crime.

Emotionally charged closing arguments were Thursday morning and the case went to the jury. By the afternoon, no verdict was reached.

Welty was one of the youngest people ever charged with murder in Missouri when he was accused in 2006 of killing 64-year-old Don McCollough, who was found shot to death on his farm in Stoddard County. The case was heard in St. Louis County on a change of venue.

Welborn told jurors the case relied on circumstantial evidence, but said there was plenty of it.

"This isn't a television show," Welborn said. "We don't have eyewitnesses.

"I wish I had a photograph of what happened, but I don't," Welborn said, urging jurors to "apply your reason and common sense."

Rosenblum cradled Welty's broad shoulders as he recounted how long the boy has been behind bars.

"Eight hundred and 19 days," Rosenblum said. "The only crime we saw in this courtroom was the crime that this boy has been stolen from his family for 819 days — over two years."

But Welborn said, "All of us hate to think a 13-year-old boy can commit a horrible crime like murder. But we know it happens."

Welty stared straight ahead during Thursday's hearing. He fidgeted occasionally, sipped water. He glanced back at his family once, as his mother hurried out of the courtroom sobbing after Rosenblum told jurors, "It's time for you to give (Welty) the voice he hasn't had in Stoddard County."

About a dozen relatives of McCollough sat on the other side of the courtroom from Welty's family. McCollough's widow, Glenda, also sobbed quietly a couple of times as lawyers recounted the horror of the case.

The shooting occurred on Nov. 14, 2006. Welty was hunting behind McCollough's property. Meanwhile, McCollough, a construction foreman who lived in Dexter but spent a lot of time at his farm, was working on the roof of a building.

Welty did not testify during the trial but told police he shot at a turkey and missed — but not in the direction of McCollough, who was about 350 feet away. About 20 minutes later, Welty said in statements, he heard another shot from someone else. He said he heard McCollough yell out, "ouch."

Welty told his parents what he heard. He then got on the computer and told a family friend during an online chat.

"I think my neighbor just got shot," he wrote.

That online chat also revealed a motive, Welborn said. When the friend asked if Welty's mother had alerted authorities, Welty replied, "No, because he's the person who says I shot his bull."

It was later that night that McCollough's body was found. A bullet had ripped through his neck and mouth.

The doctor who performed the autopsy determined McCollough couldn't have yelled out "ouch" because the bullet severed his vocal cords. But Rosenblum called an expert witness, St. Louis medical examiner Michael Green, who said only one vocal cord was severed. Green said it would have been unlikely McCollough could have formed words, but he could have screamed out a noise.

Rosenblum said Welty never changed his story, never tried to delete the chat, cooperated with police at every step, even gave them the spent shell he used to shoot at the turkey. But he said police were determined from the start to pin the crime to the boy. And he blamed detectives for a litany of mistakes — overlooked evidence and failure to record the interrogation of Welty or pursue leads of other potential suspects.

"Does it ever dawn on them that, hey, maybe the kid didn't do it? That doesn't fit their theory," Rosenblum said.