Opening Statements
The jury trial for 27 year old former Fort Riley soldier, Daniel Parker was originally set for June but was moved to August due to unforeseen circumstances.
Parker is accused of the first degree murder of 21 year old Frederick Beverly on New Years Day of 2012.
Jury selection was held Monday and the trial began Tuesday in Judge David Stutzman’s courtroom. Parker entered the room wearing his army uniform.
State Attorney, Barry Disney began opening statements by describing the scene. “In the early morning hours (of January 1st, 2012), the defendant drove to the assassin’s street riders’ club house. Twice he drove by, the second time he drove by and shot the gun at least 20 times”, Disney stated. Disney went on to say Beverly was shot in the forehead and after Parker was done with this act, Parker went to a convenient store to by a cigar.
Disney also explained the scene of the fight that allegedly occurred earlier that night at Last Chance bar in Aggieville. He explained to the jury that evidence would be presented throughout the case, proving that Parker shot Beverly, including receipts, pictures and cell phone records. An M-4 rifle was also found in Parker’s house when police searched it.
“In short the evidence will prove the defendant committed both felonies-felony murder and felony criminal discharge of a firearm in dwelling”, said Disney, as he concluded his opening statement.
Defense Attorney, Ronald Evans chose to reserve from an opening statement.
Witnesses
Riley County Police Officer, Andrew Spade was the first witness to take the stand. Spade was working, on the night of the alleged shooting, as a routine patrol officer for the Manhattan/Riley County area. Spade said he was patrolling City Park when he heard the alert tone from dispatch of an aggravated battery with a firearm.
Spade explained to the jury his route he took from the park to the scene of the call-17th and Fair Lane. He mentioned he proceeded to the clubhouse by using his lights and sirens.
When arriving to the scene, Spade stated he first took his first aid kit from his trunk and saw there were people doing CPR on Beverly. Spade commented, “there was so much blood, it was hard to find the wound”. After cleaning blood from Beverly’s eyes, it was then that Spade found the wound between Beverly’s eyebrows, on his forehead.
Spade described the skull, as brain matter was coming out of the bullet hole, and the top of Beverly’s skull had collapsed.
After Beverly was transported to Mercy Regional Health Center, he was pronounced deceased, and Spade put his body in a body bag.
Doctor Altaf Hossain was the next witness. Hossain performed the autopsy on Beverly on January 2nd, 2012 in Kansas City, Kansas.
He explained the x-ray of the skull and pictures of the head, and mentioned there were around 10 projectile fragments in the skull.
Danielle Yordy, who was employed by the Assassin’s street riders as a photographer for after parties, took the stand to explain the scene of the shooting.
Beverly’s girlfriend at the time, Kimberly Arps also explained the scene of the shooting, as well as the bar fight earlier that evening.
Former military soldier and Assassin’s street rider, Brandon Cabrarno shared details of his attempts to resuscitate Beverly, as he helped another street rider perform CPR that night.
This trial will resume in Riley County District Court this afternoon and will continue throughout the week.
——-Update from Tuesday afternoon——-
Terrance McKinney took the stand after the jury trial resumed in court at 1:15 Tuesday afternoon. McKinney stated he was friends with Parker and was in Aggieville when the bar altercation occurred at Last Chance.
Riley County Police Detective, Robert Dirks was assigned to investigate the alleged shooting and was asked on January 4th, 2012 to go to Junction City to make contact with Parker.
According to Dirks, when he arrived at Parker’s apartment building, he saw a black impala and a white male walking away from the car.
After obtaining the license plate information, Dirks found that the car was registered under Parker’s name. Dirks walked to find Parker and saw him throwing away a trash bag, which contained a white shirt.
Further details of this day came out when Detective Ryan Runyan took the stand. He stated he was the one to read Parker his Miranda Rights when making contact with him. When Runyan sat Parker down at the police department and questioned him, for around a four hour period, Parker stated he did not leave the parking lot the night after the bar. He then later changed this statement, as he believed he was driving on I-70, which later was changed to I-77 in another statement. He also stated he believed the gun was in his apartment during the night of the incident, which he later changed-as he said it could have been in his trunk.
A receipt was found in Parker’s vehicle from Sapp Brothers, out of Junction City. The time on the register was off by 23 minutes, but it was found that Parker made the initial purchase (of pizza and black and mild cigars) around 4:27 a.m. on January 1st, 2012. Survaillence footage was shown during the trial to confirm this.
Runyan also obtained Parker’s cell phone in order to retrieve phone records.
Riley County Police Officer, Daniel Borgan was assigned the job of reviewing the records.
He found that there were 18 calls made, inlolving Parker’s phone, between 2:06 and 3:05 on the early morning of new year’s day. He explained the various towers the calls and texts “pinged” off of, as towers changed throughout the morning. At least one call hit a tower not far from the motorcycle clubhouse.
This case will continue in court Wednesday morning.
