Appellate court upholds Barton County jury conviction, 30-year sentence for Nevada man who swindled $1.2 million from elderly woman

In a unanimous decision, the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals today upheld the Barton County jury conviction and 30-year sentence for a Nevada man for his involvement in swindling $1.2 million from an elderly woman.

The jury found Christopher Buller, 42, guilty in May 2018 in a case that was heard in Barton County Circuit Court on a change of venue from Vernon County.

The appellate panel rejected Buller's contentions that there was not enough evidence to convict him and Judge David Munton erred when he permitted letters he had written to the woman asking for loans to be admitted as evidence

Buller's crime was detailed in the opinion:

Defendant was charged with a violation of section 570.145 for over a period of time from January 1, 2011, through March 17, 2014, obtaining control of at least $50,000 of Victim’s property through deception. 

Viewed in accordance with our standard of review, supra, the following facts were adduced at Defendant’s trial. 









Victim was born in April of 1928 and, later in life, inherited “a fair amount of wealth from her parents” who had been “very lucky” in the stock market. She was an accountant and, for a time, co-owned an office supply business in Nevada, Missouri, with her late husband. 

Victim had two daughters, one of whom, Katie Pettibon (“Daughter”), helped run the family business. 

Beginning in 2011, Daughter began “hearing things from different people” concerning Victim’s suspicious banking transactions or attempted banking transactions. 

Upon confronting Victim, Victim became angry, said it was none of Daughter’s business, and refused to talk or engage with Daughter further. 

During the summer months of 2014, Daughter sought and acquired conservatorship of Victim, thereby gaining control of her finances. Daughter then discovered Victim’s financial records showed that Victim had cashed out $1,185,500 in Exxon Mobile stock. 

Financial records reflected that in late 2010, Victim opened a checking account into which, over the course of the next year, she deposited the proceeds from her stock sales in approximately $80,000 increments. 

After each deposit, Victim issued checks to herself for cash, which, in the aggregate, exceeded $1,200,000. 









In 2015, Eric Davis turned himself in and confessed to authorities that he, along with Defendant, both of whom were acquaintances of Victim, engaged in a systematic scam to acquire Victim’s money. 

According to Davis’ confession and trial testimony, he and Defendant would concoct false narratives and then call Victim asking for money. 

Defendant had the ability to disguise his voice on the phone and pretend to be another male or a female, which allowed him to deceive Victim. 

Defendant would sometimes portray himself to Victim as a bill collector who needed money from Davis. Victim was tricked into believing that if she did not provide the money, Davis would go to jail. 

Another false narrative involved a fictional Judge Copeland and a fictional attorney named McMillan who needed Victim’s money. 

Davis and Defendant would decide together how much of Victim’s money they wanted, whereupon Davis would set up a meeting with Victim, where she would arrive with a box or bag containing thousands of dollars in cash. 

Davis asked for between $40,000 and $80,000 from Victim at least once a month and would split that money with Defendant. The money was used on gambling, drinking, buying vehicles, and investing.