Deputies describe final confrontation with James Horn, Jr.

It was supposed to be Sergeant John Cline’s day off. While helping one of his neighbors on a Saturday morning, a member of Missouri’s Rural Major Case Squad asked him to help canvas a house. The group of several law enforcement agencies from the area had just been asked to help find 47-year-old James Horn, Jr., the prime suspect in the deaths of Sandra Sutton and her son, Zachary that happened in Clinton two days earlier. Cline put on his uniform, and met other investigators to the place Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond wanted a closer look at – the Kearn Memorial Wildlife Area, where some thefts had occurred a day ago.

Minutes later, Sgt. Cline and fellow Pettis County Sergeant Tolbert Rowe, found Horn in a closet of the vacant home. The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control released the investigation into the deputy-involved shooting of May 23, 2015 to ABC 17 News, detailing the tense situation that led to Sgt. Cline firing 17 rounds into the closet, killing Horn. Johnson County prosecutor Robert Russell told ABC 17 News he did not file charges against Cline, saying the shooting was justified.

Horn became the target of Sedalia police in May 2015 when Sandra Sutton, 46, escaped Horn’s home on East 15th Street, claiming she was made to sleep in a wooden box for months. The Pettis County prosecutor charged Horn with kidnapping, armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon shortly after that. Sutton moved to Clinton after her escape, where on May 21, she was killed, along with her 17-year-old son Zachary. Clinton police said they had no idea Sutton was staying in town.

Russell never made a public announcement of his decision, but Sheriff Bond told ABC 17 News the day after Horn’s death that he thought his deputies acted correctly. It was unclear Thursday whether Cline or Rowe had returned to work.

Sgt. Cline told DDCC investigators that the Major Case Squad was heading to a vacant house at the Kearn Memorial Wildlife Area, owned by the Missouri Department of Conservation, at SE 650th Road in Johnson County. Conservation agent Dan Love told Sheriff Bond that the caretaker’s home there had been empty for a while, and the sheriff wanted them to check it out. Cline said he, Love, Sgt. Rowe, Carroll County Sheriff Troy Hofstetter and Clinton police officer Scott Brandt went to investigate that morning.

In his interview with the Highway Patrol, Rowe said he and Sheriff Hofstetter went to the front door, while others checked the back. He said the door jamb appeared “busted,” leading them to believe someone forced entry into the home.

Cline said he called out several times for anyone inside the home to come out, identifying himself as a member of the sheriff’s office. While searching the empty home, Cline said he found further evidence someone may be inside.

“I got to the bathroom, what immediately caught my attention was, it looked like a set of hiking boots,” Cline said. “The rest of this house had been completely empty, and there was a set of hiking boots that were on the bathroom counter top.”

The video taken by the Highway Patrol of the home shows the bathroom with the boots next to a bedroom in the northwest corner of the house. Cline said he and Rowe went to check the one room not yet searched on the first floor – a closet in that bedroom.

“John slid the closet door back, and there was Mr. Horn,” Rowe said. “So I could see a blanket and some stuff, and he had a gun to his head.”

“I hear Sergeant Rowe say something to the effect of, ‘OK, he’s in there, he’s got a gun,” Cline said. “At that time, I was in the line of fire, so I stepped out to my left.”

Rowe continued, “And he had this look. All morning long, I’ve been trying to find a word to describe it, but it’s a combination of, I don’t know, defiance, anger and hostility. I don’t know the right term, but he looks at me, and I scream, ‘He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun to his head.’ And by that time, I remember his forehead furrowed. He had the gun to his head, and he started to move it forward.”

Cline said he could not see Horn at this point. The other half of the sliding closet door was closed, but Cline watched as Rowe began backing up, and screaming “gun” several times, “nearly tripping over his own feet” as he backed up.

“Judging from Sergeant Rowe’s reaction, I feared for Sergeant Rowe’s life, as well as my life, and I fired into the closet where I knew the suspect was,” Cline said.

Investigators counted at least 17 bullet holes in the closet door. Inside, Horn laid slumped over his legs, shell casings from Cline’s rifle scattered near the bedroom’s entrance. Cline said he then went to his car to get a first aid kit to try and help Horn, but when he returned, Cline said he did not feel a pulse.

Dr. Michael Handler of Frontier Forensics in Kansas City performed an autopsy on Horn the next day. He listed the cause of death as “multiple gunshot wounds to the thorax, abdomen and extremities.”

Sheriff Bond described Horn’s living conditions as “sparse” the day after his death. The patrol’s video shows a dark-colored sleeping bag in the closet with Horn, along with a few pairs of jeans, rolls of duct tape and an atlas. An evidence log with the patrol’s investigation lists two guns found in the closet, both reported stolen.

Investigators also found a wallet with several forms of identification for Horn, including a driver’s license and Social Security card. The wallet also had “a handwritten note containing (4) names and five (5) telephone numbers…” A separate Post-It note had two addresses. While the report does not specify whether a town is written next to it, one of them is the same street and address number as the house in Clinton where the Suttons were found shot to death.