Annette Durham, 32, and her boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, 39
Marvin Rice
State seeking death penalty against Rice
The state plans to seek the death penalty for Marvin Rice, Salem, charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the Dec. 10, 2011, shooting deaths of Annette Durham, 32, and her boyfriend, Steven Strotkamp, 39, in rural Dent County.
Rice is scheduled for a Dec. 4 trial in Wayne County on a change of venue from Dent County. He is being held in Cole County for treatment of injuries he sustained when he was shot as he was captured.
The death penalty motion was filed Oct. 9 in Wayne County by Dent County Prosecuting Attorney Sid Pearson. Pearson said he filed the notice after discussing it with family members of the victims.
Pearson said state statutes have 17 factors for the death penalty to be considered.
The factors Pearson is citing are:
• The murder in the first-degree offense was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission or attempted commission of another unlawful homicide.
• The offender by his act of murder in the first-degree knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon or device which would normally be hazardous to the lives or more than one person.
• The murder in the first degree was committed while the defendant was engaged in the perpetration or attempts to perpetrate a felony of kidnapping.
“These are the requirements that I believe fit this case,” Pearson said Friday.
Authorities believe Rice, a former Dent County deputy sheriff and Missouri corrections officer, was involved in an argument with Durham and Strotkamp before he shot them and fled the scene.
Rice went to the residence demanding a 2-year-old child be returned to his custody, according to a release from the Dent County sheriff’s office. Rice has confessed to the murders, according to a probable cause statement from law enforcement.
After the shootings, Rice led authorities on a multi-county pursuit that ended with a shootout at Jefferson City hotel.
Rice is being held without bond in the Cole County Jail after being released from a Columbia hospital. He was in the hospital being treated for injuries he suffered during an exchange of gunfire between him and law enforcement officers at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
Cole County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Richardson said a Cole County Grand Jury Dec. 20, 2011, indicted Rice on felony counts of assault of a law enforcement officer, armed criminal action and resisting arrest.
No court date has been set in Cole County. The case will be heard by Judge Patricia Joyce, presiding judge of the 19th Circuit Court.
http://www.thesalemnewsonline.com/ne...9bb30f31a.html
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