Jury convicts father of second-degree murder
Nov. 1—Doubts among jurors that Todd Mayes acted with deliberation in fatally shooting his teenage daughter in January 2022 led to a verdict of second-degree murder Wednesday.
A jury composed of eight women and four men deliberated four hours and 10 minutes before returning verdicts convicting the 61-year-old man of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the slaying of 17-year-old Prayer Nickelsen.
Mayes faced a first-degree murder charge in the three-day trial in Jasper County Circuit Court in which he claimed he shot his daughter in self-defense. While jurors did not buy that claim, they could not unanimously agree that Mayes pulled the trigger after "cool reflection for any length of time no matter how brief," as premeditated murder is defined under state law.
Defense attorney Brett Meeker told jurors during closing arguments that her client was struck on the head by a bottle his daughter threw and was afraid he might get hit again.
"Yes, she was a 17-year-old girl," Meeker said. "But you can be scared and intimidated by a 17-year-old girl."
Nickelsen had been drinking and behaving in a more violent manner than her father had ever seen her act. He did not want to kill her. He just did not want to be hit with another bottle, Meeker said.
"There wasn't cool reflection," she said. "Todd reacted in an instant."
Assistant Prosecutor Nate Dally argued that the defendant's pronouncement in the midst of an argument with his daughter that he was going to get his gun and call police was the starting point of a period of cool reflection Mayes experienced before shooting his daughter.
The father had gone upstairs to Nickelsen's room in their home on South Connor Avenue in Joplin in response to a ruckus that broke out between her and an older male tenant in the house who was involved with his daughter.
A confrontation ensued between Mayes and his daughter, and he went back down the stairs to get a 9 mm pistol he kept in a computer desk. Dally argued that the time it took for Mayes to get his gun and start back up the stairs was sufficient opportunity for him to deliberate on what he was doing.
Mayes testified Tuesday that he started back up the stairs because she had thrown something at him as he was retreating to the downstairs the first time and had continued throwing bottles and other objects down the staircase. He told the jury that as he started up the stairs again, she threw a heavy Patron tequila bottle that struck him in the head and then came at him with a second bottle, and he shot her.
Dally had pointed out in cross-examination of the defendant Tuesday how that account in court differed from the eyewitness account of Nickelsen's girlfriend and from prior statements he had made to a police dispatcher and a detective.
In his closing argument Wednesday, Dally maintained that Mayes waited until his daughter started coming down the stairs and then shot her, which was what a premeditating "murderer" would do.
Police found two bottles on the staircase. One next to where Nickelsen collapsed after being shot was the bottle her girlfriend, Lacey Radcliff, had testified that she picked up to defend herself as they tried to leave the house.
Mayes and his brother, who testified for the defense Wednesday, claimed Nickelsen threw other bottles down the stairs in a rage and suggested that the reason police found just two was that Marcell Davis, the older tenant involved with the girl, may have picked some up and taken them to his room, where he was known to collect bottles on his bed's headboard.
Dally showed the jury a still frame of a body cam video captured that night during a responding officer's initial walk-through of the home. There were no bottles lined up on the headboard in the photo, and Dally characterized the defendant's testimony in that regard as merely "self-serving."
"This is not a case of self-defense," Dally said. "This is only a case of first-degree murder."
First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole in Missouri. Second-degree murder carries up to life in prison but leaves open the possibility of parole.
Because Mayes waived jury sentencing before trial, the judge released the jurors after the pronouncement of their verdicts and set the defendant's sentencing hearing for Dec. 19.
