Granby woman’s murder trial opens in Pineville
BY JEFF LEHR, jlehr@joplinglobe.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
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PINEVILLE, Mo. — Prosecutor Jake Skouby told a jury Tuesday that John Jordon and his family became increasingly wary of Connie Sanders-Ford in the three weeks leading up to the fatal shooting of Jordon a year ago in Granby.
Sanders-Ford had been a customer of Jordon’s tree-trimming service both before and after her husband died. In the wake of her husband’s death,
Page 6A
they’d had an extramarital affair that lasted about a year until Jordon decided to put an end to it in March of last year, the prosecutor said during opening statements on the first day of Sanders-Ford’s murder trial in Pineville.
The defendant did not take that well, barging into Jordon’s home in Granby on a Friday and confronting his wife, Patricia, the prosecutor said. “The defendant called Patricia ‘pathetic’ for holding on to John,” Skouby told the jury.
Two days later, on a Sunday, the prosecutor said, she returned to the couple’s house and began arguing with John, loud enough for his wife to hear when she asked if he had told her about the oral sex that they had been having together.
Skouby told jurors that Jordon’s wife moved out of their home briefly but soon moved back in out of a growing concern for the safety of herself, her daughter and granddaughter because of Sanders-Ford’s behavior. She took out a protection order on Sanders- Ford on March 10 of last year, he said.
John began “dissociating” himself from Sanders- Ford a few days later. On March 19, he deeded back to her some property that she’d given him.
He and an adult son also filed for protection orders against her on that date, Skouby told jurors.
Skouby said the defendant had shown up at the Jordons’ home wanting her guns back. Police were called, and John Jordon handed over the guns, including a Taurus .40-caliber weapon believed to be the weapon that killed him March 30, 2015.
The family members became particularly alarmed when she called their house and told them she was calling from a cemetery, according to the prosecutor. He said they heard a gunshot in the background and called the sheriff’s office. An investigator went to the cemetery to speak with her. The prosecutor said the investigator learned that she had been lying down on some plots the Jordons owned there.
According to the prosecutor, Jordon was shot once in the chest just inside a door of his home on Spruce Street in Granby. The shot “nicked the bottom of his heart” and “destroyed his liver,” he said.
Sanders-Ford, 66, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, and the trial is expected to last two or three days. The Newton County case was moved to McDonald County on a change of venue.
Defense attorney Duane Cooper made a brief opening statement in which he denied the culpability of the defendant.
Cooper said it was true that Sanders-Ford had an affair with Jordon and that she invested in his business and bought property for him. He said the prosecutor’s claim that she showed up at the home of friends in Neosho and told them that she had shot him also is true, although the defendant was “faking it” at the time, he said. He did not explain what he meant by that.
“There’s going to be evidence from police officers that she was completely incoherent on the way to jail,” Cooper said.
He said gunshot residue tests suggest that someone other than his client shot Jordon.
Detective Wanda Williams of the Newton County Sheriff’s Department was called by the prosecution to testify about the scene of the shooting. She told the court that a .40-caliber shell casing was found near the victim’s body and that a Taurus .40-caliber handgun later was found in Sanders- Ford’s purse when a search warrant was executed on her vehicle. The purse was located in the trunk, she said.
Mary and Morris Jarrett, the friends of the defendant she went to see the day of the killing, also were called as state witnesses.
Mary Jarrett said she knew something was wrong when Sanders-Ford came in through her back door in a hurry.
“She just said, ‘I shot him. I shot him,’” Mary Jarrett testified. “I said, ‘Sit down. Shut up. I don’t want to hear no more.’” She told the court that while Sanders-Ford never told her who she shot, she assumed she meant John Jordon.
Mary Jarrett said Sanders- Ford told her she was trying to call attorney Greg Bridges, and that she took her phone from Sanders- Ford and made the call for her.
She said she then stepped outside because she did not wish to hear anything more about what her friend had done.
Morris Jarrett said he was in a back room when Sanders-Ford first entered their house. He heard his wife call for him and came out to the kitchen. Sanders- Ford was there and told him that she shot “him.”
“I asked her: ‘Shot who?’” he told the court. “She said John Jordon. I asked her how bad she shot him, and she said she really didn’t know.”
He said Sanders-Ford suggested that they drive over and check him to see, and he told her that he did not think that was a good idea. He called 911 instead, he said.
Morris Jarrett said she kept saying after that: “I couldn’t have shot somebody. I couldn’t have shot somebody. I couldn’t have.”
BY JEFF LEHR, jlehr@joplinglobe.com
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/loca...ac8349818.html
http://whitenationalist.org/forum/sh...4589#post14589
http://christian-identity.net/forum/...4589#post14589
PINEVILLE, Mo. — Prosecutor Jake Skouby told a jury Tuesday that John Jordon and his family became increasingly wary of Connie Sanders-Ford in the three weeks leading up to the fatal shooting of Jordon a year ago in Granby.
Sanders-Ford had been a customer of Jordon’s tree-trimming service both before and after her husband died. In the wake of her husband’s death,
Page 6A
they’d had an extramarital affair that lasted about a year until Jordon decided to put an end to it in March of last year, the prosecutor said during opening statements on the first day of Sanders-Ford’s murder trial in Pineville.
The defendant did not take that well, barging into Jordon’s home in Granby on a Friday and confronting his wife, Patricia, the prosecutor said. “The defendant called Patricia ‘pathetic’ for holding on to John,” Skouby told the jury.
Two days later, on a Sunday, the prosecutor said, she returned to the couple’s house and began arguing with John, loud enough for his wife to hear when she asked if he had told her about the oral sex that they had been having together.
Skouby told jurors that Jordon’s wife moved out of their home briefly but soon moved back in out of a growing concern for the safety of herself, her daughter and granddaughter because of Sanders-Ford’s behavior. She took out a protection order on Sanders- Ford on March 10 of last year, he said.
John began “dissociating” himself from Sanders- Ford a few days later. On March 19, he deeded back to her some property that she’d given him.
He and an adult son also filed for protection orders against her on that date, Skouby told jurors.
Skouby said the defendant had shown up at the Jordons’ home wanting her guns back. Police were called, and John Jordon handed over the guns, including a Taurus .40-caliber weapon believed to be the weapon that killed him March 30, 2015.
The family members became particularly alarmed when she called their house and told them she was calling from a cemetery, according to the prosecutor. He said they heard a gunshot in the background and called the sheriff’s office. An investigator went to the cemetery to speak with her. The prosecutor said the investigator learned that she had been lying down on some plots the Jordons owned there.
According to the prosecutor, Jordon was shot once in the chest just inside a door of his home on Spruce Street in Granby. The shot “nicked the bottom of his heart” and “destroyed his liver,” he said.
Sanders-Ford, 66, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, and the trial is expected to last two or three days. The Newton County case was moved to McDonald County on a change of venue.
Defense attorney Duane Cooper made a brief opening statement in which he denied the culpability of the defendant.
Cooper said it was true that Sanders-Ford had an affair with Jordon and that she invested in his business and bought property for him. He said the prosecutor’s claim that she showed up at the home of friends in Neosho and told them that she had shot him also is true, although the defendant was “faking it” at the time, he said. He did not explain what he meant by that.
“There’s going to be evidence from police officers that she was completely incoherent on the way to jail,” Cooper said.
He said gunshot residue tests suggest that someone other than his client shot Jordon.
Detective Wanda Williams of the Newton County Sheriff’s Department was called by the prosecution to testify about the scene of the shooting. She told the court that a .40-caliber shell casing was found near the victim’s body and that a Taurus .40-caliber handgun later was found in Sanders- Ford’s purse when a search warrant was executed on her vehicle. The purse was located in the trunk, she said.
Mary and Morris Jarrett, the friends of the defendant she went to see the day of the killing, also were called as state witnesses.
Mary Jarrett said she knew something was wrong when Sanders-Ford came in through her back door in a hurry.
“She just said, ‘I shot him. I shot him,’” Mary Jarrett testified. “I said, ‘Sit down. Shut up. I don’t want to hear no more.’” She told the court that while Sanders-Ford never told her who she shot, she assumed she meant John Jordon.
Mary Jarrett said Sanders- Ford told her she was trying to call attorney Greg Bridges, and that she took her phone from Sanders- Ford and made the call for her.
She said she then stepped outside because she did not wish to hear anything more about what her friend had done.
Morris Jarrett said he was in a back room when Sanders-Ford first entered their house. He heard his wife call for him and came out to the kitchen. Sanders- Ford was there and told him that she shot “him.”
“I asked her: ‘Shot who?’” he told the court. “She said John Jordon. I asked her how bad she shot him, and she said she really didn’t know.”
He said Sanders-Ford suggested that they drive over and check him to see, and he told her that he did not think that was a good idea. He called 911 instead, he said.
Morris Jarrett said she kept saying after that: “I couldn’t have shot somebody. I couldn’t have shot somebody. I couldn’t have.”
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