Two charged, so far, in what police call attempted murder in retaliation for homicide
Prosecutors have charged two Springfield men, so far, in what police believe was a retaliation for a homicide in May.
In court documents filed late last week, Joseph Bartels and Darrell Franklin were charged with first-degree assault, which is Missouri's equivalent of attempted murder.
According to probable cause statements, police found a man in a grassy area near Nichols Street and Orchard Crest Avenue on May 15. The statement says the man was barely conscious, had large zip ties near him and appeared to have been shot. He was taken to a hospital to receive treatment, but at that time police identified him as a suspect they had been looking for in connection with an earlier homicide, on May 13.
The only May 13 homicide Springfield Police have publicly reported is the stabbing death of 37-year-old Stephen Meyle on Commercial Street. According to a press release, Meyle died of those injuries on May 16. In the release that day, police said they had identified and located a suspect, but hadn't yet presented charges to prosecutors pending further information.
The victim in the May 15 shooting, who was a suspect in a May 13 homicide, recounted events as best as he could remember, according to court documents.
He told police he had been hiding at an unnamed location but then woke up in the back of a Volvo station-wagon-type vehicle. He said he felt groggy, but that it didn't feel like a "drug high." He said Bartels, who he knew, was driving the vehicle and a second man in the passenger seat was someone he didn't know.
More: Two-year-old killed in driveway, Springfield man arrested on suspicion of DWI
He said he later remembered being taken out of the car and the second man pointing a revolver at him and feeling pressure in his chest two times. The next thing he remembered was waking up in the hospital.
Documents say police interviewed Bartels on May 26. He told them he found out where the victim had been hiding. He then went to meet another man, who police identify in documents as suspect three. At that location, another man was present who police identify as suspect four.
Bartels said he and suspects three and four then went to get the victim. They went to an apartment and said they wanted to talk to him. After he got in the car, Bartels said, the victim's hands were bound with zip ties, but he wasn't sure who had applied them or when. While the victim initially identified Bartels as the driver of the car, documents suggest the driver was actually Darrell Franklin, who told police on June 1 that he owned the Volvo.
Franklin told police he was given instructions on where to drive and at one point was contacted by suspect three, who is the only person not believed to be in the vehicle. Franklin said "things were getting weird and he was not comfortable."
Franklin said he and one of the other suspects left on foot while the other stayed with the Volvo, which he said he hadn't seen since that night.
More: Four killed Saturday when car crosses center line and strikes five motorcycles near Aurora
Court documents don't list either Bartels or Franklin as the shooter in the May 15 attempted homicide.
First-degree assault is a class A felony for which the maximum sentence is 30 years in prison. Both men were arraigned Monday and are currently being held in the Greene County Jail on $100,000 bonds. Preliminary hearings are scheduled for July 5.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Two charged in attempted retaliation murder, officials say
