Pubdate: Sun, 15 Dec 2002
Source: Joplin Globe, The (MO)
Copyright: 2002 The Joplin Globe
Contact:  http://www.joplinglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/859
Author: Jeff Lehr, Globe Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

PROSECUTOR: MURDER FELONY RULE USEFUL TOOL

Rule Invoked In Charging Carthage Man In Death Of His 11-Month-Old Son

The Jasper County prosecutor's decision to charge a Carthage father with 
murder in the death of his son allegedly caused by the infant's ingestion 
of leftovers from a methamphetamine "cook" may have set up the first case 
of its precise type in Missouri.

But not of its kind.

County prosecutors have been invoking Missouri's murder felony rule in a 
wide array of cases for a number of years. The rule permits a defendant to 
be charged with second-degree murder if a death occurs as a consequence of 
their commission of another felony.

Dennis D. Doubet, 33, of Carthage was charged this week with second-degree 
murder and felony manufacturing of a controlled substance in connection 
with the death of his 11-month-old son, Zarrin Doubet, on Sept. 23. 
Authorities believe the boy died from drinking Coleman fuel left over from 
a meth cook.

Dean Dankelson, the county prosecutor, said he is not aware of any similar 
murder cases in Missouri. But this is not the first time the Jasper County 
prosecutor's office has invoked the felony murder rule, he said.

"It does not happen very often," Dankelson said. "But when it does, it's a 
valuable tool prosecutors can use."

He said the facts in the Doubet case fit the elements of the murder felony 
rule.

The prosecutor's office is not maintaining that Doubet deliberately killed 
his son by feeding him camp fuel from a meth cook. What they will try to 
prove at trial is that he was cooking methamphetamine in the house where he 
and his wife, Maranda Doubet, and their three children lived, and in doing 
so created the circumstances under which the infant found and drank the 
fuel that killed him.

"Making methamphetamine is extremely dangerous and potentially deadly, and 
we believe, in this case, was deadly," Dankelson said.

Scott Holste, spokesman for the Missouri attorney general's office, said he 
was not aware of any other cases in the state where a defendant was charged 
with murder for the death of a child related to the manufacture of 
methamphetamine.

Holste said the attorney general's office does not keep a database of 
county cases that would permit verification of the Doubet case's 
singularity. He said a search of second-degree murder cases appealed to the 
Missouri Supreme Court did not turn up any involving a child's death from 
ingestion of methamphetamine or its components.

The murder felony rule is probably most commonly used in drunk driving 
cases, Holste said.

The rule was first invoked in Jasper County in the case of Marques Rodgers 
more than eight years ago. Rodgers and his brother allegedly tried to kill 
an informant who was to testify against him on drug charges. But the 
attempt backfired on them and the informant wound up shooting and killing 
Rodgers' brother in what was deemed self-defense.

The murder charge filed against Rodgers for allegedly causing his brother's 
death eventually was dropped in favor of his prosecution on federal charges 
instead.

Nicholas W. Hibbert of Joplin was convicted under the rule about four years 
ago. Hibbert and two other defendants, Stephen Johnson and Michael Davis, 
were accused of jumping Rick Kimbrough, 34, outside his 20th Street 
apartment. Kimbrough was beaten and stabbed before being taken to a 
secluded rock quarry where he was pushed into the water to die.

Hibbert, who claimed not to know that Johnson had a knife and intended to 
stab Kimbrough and not to have left a truck he had followed them in to the 
quarry, was convicted of second-degree murder because Kimbrough died during 
the commission of another felony, kidnapping, of which Hibbert also was 
found guilty.

There's also a second felony murder rule case pending in Jasper County that 
involves alleged methamphetamine-related activities.

Christopher K. Clark, 29, of Springfield stands accused of second-degree 
murder in the death of Brandon Riffell, 24, of Aurora. Clark allegedly was 
driving a car that exploded on U.S. 71 at Carthage on Nov. 26, 2001. 
Riffell was a passenger in the car.

Authorities allege the vehicle was a rolling meth lab.
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