PINEVILLE, Mo (KMOX) - A St. Louis man has been acquitted on charges stemming from the shooting of a Sheriff's deputy in southwest Missouri., after telling the jury he thought the officer was a member of a Joplin white supremacist gang.
E.F. Fitchpatrick, 43, a self-described drug dealer with a 25-year criminal history, testified that when Newton County Deputy Nolan Murray knocked on the door of his room at the Econo Lodge in Joplin, he thought it was a member of the Joplin Honkies coming to kill him, and steal his meth and $9,000 in drug money.
According to the Joplin Globe, the 46-year-old testified that the night before, he had an argument with an old prison buddy's "play sister" who was selling drugs for him and she had threatened him.
After wounding Murray, Fitchpatrick hid in the bathroom. Later as the SWAT Team moved in and he realized he had shot an officer, he shot himself in the chin because, he told the jury, he figured since he'd shot a cop, his life was pretty much over.
The jury of four men and eight women deliberated less than two hours before finding Fitchpatrick not guilty of assault and armed criminal action.
A McDonald County jury heard the case on a change of venue from Newton County.
Before the trial, Fitchpatrick pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon.