http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_a2774d0e-578c-5d01-89e2-d334dbe7c9c3.html
STEELVILLE • A property owner, enraged that a man on a float trip stopped to urinate on a gravel bar along the Meramec River, told police that he fatally shot the man's traveling buddy in the face in a dispute about property rights, court records say.
James Robert Crocker, 59, of Steelville, was charged with second-degree murder in the killing Saturday along the Meramec. The dead man was identified as Paul Franklin Dart, 48, of Robertsville.
Crocker is being held in lieu of $650,000 bail at the Crawford County Jail.
According to court documents released Monday, Crocker used a 9mm handgun in killing Dart just before 2 p.m. Saturday. Crocker and some of the floaters had argued for about 10 minutes on shore before the shooting.
"It's my property and I was going to protect it," Crocker told police, according to court records.
At one point, Crocker fired warning shots in the gravel bar when four men started moving closer to him; one of those men had two rocks in his hands. Then, he fired the shot — from about three feet away — at Dart, who didn't have any rocks in his hands.
"I just shot the one closest to me," Crocker said, according to police.
Dart was pronounced dead in an ambulance shortly after leaving the scene, said Paul Hutson, the Crawford County coroner. An autopsy was planned for today in Columbia.
http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_109121/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=2Kkanwta&full=true#display
STEELVILLE • A property owner, enraged that a man on a float trip stopped to urinate on a gravel bar along the Meramec River, told police that he fatally shot the man's traveling buddy in the face in a dispute about property rights, court records say.
James Robert Crocker, 59, of Steelville, was charged with second-degree murder in the killing Saturday along the Meramec. The dead man was identified as Paul Franklin Dart, 48, of Robertsville.
Crocker is being held in lieu of $650,000 bail at the Crawford County Jail.
According to court documents released Monday, Crocker used a 9mm handgun in killing Dart just before 2 p.m. Saturday. Crocker and some of the floaters had argued for about 10 minutes on shore before the shooting.
"It's my property and I was going to protect it," Crocker told police, according to court records.
At one point, Crocker fired warning shots in the gravel bar when four men started moving closer to him; one of those men had two rocks in his hands. Then, he fired the shot — from about three feet away — at Dart, who didn't have any rocks in his hands.
"I just shot the one closest to me," Crocker said, according to police.
Dart was pronounced dead in an ambulance shortly after leaving the scene, said Paul Hutson, the Crawford County coroner. An autopsy was planned for today in Columbia.
http://m.stltoday.com/STL/db_109121/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=2Kkanwta&full=true#display
