UPDATE: Columbia man found guilty in double murder trial
UPDATE: Lucas has been found guilty on all four counts, including double murder and armed criminal action.
ORIGINAL STORY: A 12-person jury is deciding the fate of a man accused of murdering two men in September 2015.
Darious Lucas is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action for the killings of James Richardson and Kenneth Long.
In the third day of the trial, the state began testimony with Detective Matt Vessar of the Boone County Sheriff’s Department. Vessar described at least two interviews that he had with Lucas; the first in October 2015 and the second in May 2016.
He also described handwritten rap lyrics found in Lucas’s jail cell. The lyrics referenced the same type of ammunition used in the killings. They also have references to “innocent bystander,” “wrong place, wrong time,” and “shot in the back.”
The defense referenced a rap artist from Kansas City with similar rap lyrics and suggested that Lucas imght have been writing about being accused of the crime. The defense said the lyrics were not a confession.
After the state rested, the defense called a former investigator and submitted four pieces of evidence: shipping boxes containing boxes of the same ammunition used in the killings. The ammunition was purchased in February 2017 from online armories across the country.
The defense also called a friend of Richardson and Long. The man worked for Richardson’s tree-trimming business in Mexico, Missouri. The man said Richardson didn’t have a license and would often drive him places. The defense asked if he ever saw Richardson performing drug transactions. The man said he never saw that but assumed that’s what he was doing.
In the state’s closing, the prosecution said it was a planned killing. They said every time Lucas shot the gun at Richardson and Long was another decision to kill the men.
The defense claimed that there is no hard evidence, including DNA, linking Lucas to the crime scene and that the prosecution is asking the jury to convict on assumptions.
