Murder charge against suspect in 2014 killing upgraded

Prosecutors have upgraded one of the charges against Jason Lage, a suspect in the 2014 murder of Zachary Dawson in Madison.

Lage had been charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, and tampering with physical evidence; the murder charge was upgraded to first-degree murder on Tuesday. His bond has been set at $1 million, cash only.

Lage, along with Jessica Munoz from Moberly, were arrested shortly after Dawson was found shot to death, but murder charges weren’t filed until late 2014.Earlier this month, Munoz pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and hindering prosecution of a felony. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 22.

According to investigators, Lage has given several stories about how Dawson died, including accidental shooting during a game of Russian roulette and suicide, but investigators claim the evidence doesn’t support those claims.

Court documents filed Tuesday show what prosecutors claim is new evidence in the case, including details from conversations Lage reportedly had in jail with another inmate. In those conversations, Lage apparently said he planned to rob Dawson “for his car and hat he had,” and when he put the gun to Dawson’s head to intimidate him, the gun went off. At that point, according to the documents, Lage and Munoz then left the home to get rid of some items before returning,

The court documents also include information from an interview with a doctor at University Hospital in Columbia who participated in Dawson’s autopsy. That doctor said he believed the type of gunshot wound Dawson got would have been survivable, had Dawson gotten immediate medical attention. Munoz reportedly told investigators after she and Lage returned to the home following the shooting, she saw Dawson murmering and trying to sit up, but didn’t call 911 until after potential evidence was disposed of.

For comparison, the doctor at University Hospital described Dawson’s gunshot wound as being similar to the wound former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords got in 2011. In that incident, Giffords was shot in the head by Jared Loughner during a political event in Tucson. Giffords survived, but was left with partial paralysis and impairment to both speech and vision. Six people died, and 14 others were injured in the shooting.