Defendant waives hearing in Noel murder case

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read

Apr. 15—PINEVILLE, Mo. — Shun'tavion Thomas waived a preliminary hearing Wednesday on the murder charges he is facing in the Nov. 22 shooting death of Jonathan Arrellanos.

Judge John LePage ordered the 23-year-old Noel man to stand trial on counts of second-degree murder and armed criminal action with his arraignment in a trial division of McDonald County Circuit Court scheduled for Thursday.

Thomas is accused of fatally shooting Arrellanos, 23, during an argument at the Noel Heights Apartments complex on Redwood Lane in Noel.

A woman who lives in the apartment where the shooting took place told deputies that she was in a back bedroom when an argument between the two men started and two shots were fired. She emerged from the bedroom to see Thomas leaving the apartment and found Arrellanos lying dead on the kitchen floor, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

The woman then took her two children and left the apartment to await the arrival of officers and emergency help.

According to the affidavit, Thomas contacted the McDonald County dispatch center to report that he had shot his friend and fled with the gun he had used.

Deputies in McDonald County tracked the cellphone call to a road just north of the Arkansas state line, and the suspect surrendered the same night to deputies in Benton County, Arkansas.