Lindeman cites Castle Doctrine

The criminal case against a West Plains man accused of first-degree murder remains pending while the defendant seeks legal representation. Larry Lindeman, 78, filed a Motion to Continue on his own behalf, stating that he is attempting to sell real estate to raise funds to hire a defense attorney. Lindeman was denied a public defender in June and was scheduled for a counsel status hearing on August 10. 

 

On August 11, two handwritten filings from Lindeman were provided to the Honorable R. Craig Carter. One is a Motion to Continue that describes the delay in obtaining representation. The other is a Motion to Dismiss all charges. 

 

As previously reported by Howell County News, a grand jury indicted Lindeman in March. Evidence presented to a grand jury is not public record. Narrative details about the fatal shooting on November 8 are available through Lindeman’s testimony in open court on January 21.

 

According to that testimony, Lindeman said he was inside a vacant house that had reportedly been burglarized for nearly four hours. He did not have a functioning mobile phone. He testified that he made mental notes of what had been stolen and gathered scattered belongings, including sports cards, without securing doors or turning lights off or on. After several hours, two men entered the residence through a basement door. 

 

Lindeman testified that he fired twice at the first man who climbed the stairs. According to the January 21 testimony, the first shot struck the man in the back of the head. Lindeman said the man then lunged toward him, and that he fired again. The man later died from his injuries. 

 

The second man, Keith Geringer, 32, of West Plains, is scheduled to face trial in October on charges of second-degree murder and first-degree burglary. A second-degree murder charge may apply if another person dies while the accused commits a felony. On January 21, Lindeman was called as a witness in the criminal case against Geringer, hence the available testimony.

 

In the correspondence filed this month,  Lindeman wrote that West Plains Detective Aaron Galliher “obviously did not like” him and “put words into all our mouths and was insistent that [Lindeman] was angry and intended to ‘take matters into [his] own hands’. Not true!”

 

The letter states that if Lindeman had intended to kill someone, he “would not have brought a 20-gauge shotgun with birdshot. [He] would have brought a 12-gauge loaded with 00 buck shot!!”

 

The letter also notes that one of the items previously reported stolen from Paula Drive was a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot. Lindeman’s January 21 testimony said he had two pistols and a shotgun with him the day of the shooting. 

 

In his Motion to Dismiss, Lindeman cites Missouri’s Castle Doctrine, noting that all shots were fired within 2619 Paula Dr. The Castle Doctrine, or RSMo. 563.031, says, “A person may…use physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she reasonably believes such force to be necessary to defend himself or herself or a third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful force by such other person.” 

 

The law requires a defendant to claim justification under the Castle Doctrine. The state must then “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did not reasonably believe that the use of such force was necessary to defend against what he or she reasonably believed was the use or imminent use of unlawful force.”

 

“I could not see the left hand of the first guy after he came up the stairs and obviously couldn’t tell if thief #2 was armed or not. I feared for my life and elected to shoot first…,” the letter states.

 

As in the January testimony, the letter describes the deceased lunging after the first shot. Unlike the testimony, the letter does not mention where the shots struck him.

 

Lindeman also describes in the letter a series of events that he says led to him leaving his functioning cell phone in his wife’s vehicle. He said he had only a phone that monitored his blood sugar and could not make outgoing calls. 

“I did not realize I didn’t have the new phone until it was dark outside, and once again, I walked through the well-lit kitchen to check if I had left it on the overturned microwave stand…Then I remembered what I had done with the phone. Too late! Now I couldn’t call or text [my wife] or [stepson]. And worst of all, it wasn’t possible for me to quietly call the cops after the thieves showed up…”

 

By the time it was dark that day, Lindeman would have been in the residence for about 90 minutes. After the shooting, he went several doors down the street to ask to borrow a neighbor’s phone to call police. 

 

There is no hearing scheduled on either of Lindeman’s motions. He is expected to appear in court on September 24 for another counsel status hearing.