St. Louis Man who Killed Family of 4 Jury Recommends Death
Jurors recommended the death penalty Tuesday in the court case for a St. Louis area man whose crime was that he killed his girlfriend, her two children, and her mother.
Richard Darren Emery, of St. Charles, hung his head, embraced his lawyers and cried after Judge Michael Fagras read the verdict. The victims’ friends and family shook hands and smiled. The Judge will formally sentence Emery on Nov. 3. Emery was convicted Friday of the crime of four counts of first-degree murder.
According to prosecutors, Emery fatally shot Kate Kasten (pictured below) during a verbal altercation after he’d returned home following a night of drinking and playing in a poker tournament at Throwback Tavern in St. Peters. The argument allegedly stemmed from a dispute involving Kasten’s son’s Lego set, which the Missouri man had purchased for him for Christmas, according to KMOV. In the midst of it, Kasten told him to get out of her house, after which he shot her. He then killed the others to eliminate witnesses. He then kicked in a door to a bedroom where Kasten’s mother, Jane Moeckel, 61, had barricaded herself with her grandchildren, Zoe, 8, and Jonathan, 10, and shot each of them at close range. Emery’s shootout with two St. Charles police officers and an attempted carjacking where he stabbed a woman seven times, both of which happened after the killings. Emery was eventually arrested at a convenience store.
"Attorneys argued he was mentally ill and that caused him to go into a “dream-like state.”
"I put the gun to my head. I was so close to pulling the trigger," Richard "Darren" Emery testified about when he was pulled over by police after the December 2018 killing of his girlfriend and her family in St. Charles Circuit court.
Emery shot 61-year-old Jane M. Moeckel, her two grandchildren Zoe Kasten, 8, and Jonathan Kasten, 10, and the children's mother, Kate Kasten, 39. A jury deliberated about two hours Friday, Sept. 30, before finding 50-year-old Emery guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. Death by execution has become increasingly rare in Missouri, as fewer than one person per year has been killed by the state since 2015.
Man Claims he'd been on Meth for Days, Confesses to Killing
James Douglas Drayton, 24, was taken into custody in Georgia after, officials said, he stole a car, committed an armed robbery and fled. Authorities said Drayton confessed to the crime of killing five people and told them he'd been high on methamphetamines for days has been arrested in the fatal shootings in South Carolina.
Drayton is accused of murder and other crimes in the fatal shootings at a house in Inman, 10 miles northwest of Spartanburg. Drayton lived at the home for two weeks with the five victims who also lived at the house.
Authorities responded to the house at 7:45 p.m. Sunday and found four people fatally wounded, the sheriff's office said. A fifth person was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Wright said authorities believed the shootings occurred about 9 a.m. Sunday.
The scene was "horrific," he said. The coroner previously said four of the victims were each found in a different room.
Authorities say Drayton stole a car from the home and drove more than 100 miles south, where he is accused of robbing a convenience store cashier at gunpoint.
The car had been reported stolen, and deputies who spotted it pursued Drayton at speeds topping 80 mph, the station reported. Drayton is alleged to have wrecked and run away, and he was caught shortly thereafter, according to the station. Investigators traveled to Georgia and interviewed Drayton, who confessed to the crime and said he was “hearing voices,”. He had been using meth, and he had been up for, like, four days.