Jasper County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Hensley gave Damyon Fisher, 43, permission to proceed on his appeal as a pauper and appointed the Missouri Public Defender's Office to represent him.
Fisher, acting as his own counsel, claimed ineffective assistance by his attorney for not challenging Fourth Amendment violations that would have thrown out a statement he made identifying a comforter that was placed around the body of Scotty Roller, 36, Neosho, which was then dumped into a well in March 2022.
Fisher claimed that any evidence collected after he made that statement should have been thrown out as "fruit of the poisonous tree."
Fisher also said his lawyer should have used medical records to back up his self-defense claim.
A Jasper County jury found Fisher guilty following a trial in October 2023. He was sentenced to life in prison.
"Newton County deputies pulled Roller’s body out of a well on a property in Seneca in April 2022. According to court documents, Fisher’s dad took Roller to Damyon’s home in Joplin to buy a vehicle, and the two got into a fight. Police said Damyon and Roller started arguing, and Damyon shot Roller when he turned to run away. Investigators say Damyon and his father, Eddie, then buried Roller’s body in the well at Eddie’s home."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.fourstateshomepage.com/news/crime/trial-begins-for-joplin-man-in-2022-homicide/
Can see why the jury didn't think this was self defense, it's more like that's the only excuse they could think of.
Actaul facts from the case that explain why the defendant deosn't want the comforter in evidence:
ReplyDelete"The Facts 1
Victim went with Defendant's father (“Father”) to Defendant's residence to inspect a vehicle that Father said he would give to Victim to sell as a means of satisfying a debt that Father owed Victim. While they were sitting at Defendant's dining room table discussing the vehicle, Defendant objected to the sale, claiming Father had given Defendant the vehicle as a gift. Then, according to Defendant's and Father's testimony at trial, Victim got upset with Defendant and angrily stood up, raising his hands in the air and taking two steps toward Defendant. Defendant drew a 9-millimeter pistol from his back pocket and shot Victim one time in the chest, killing him. Defendant testified at trial that he shot Victim in self-defense, which was inconsistent with previous versions of what Defendant and Father said took place that day.
Defendant originally told law enforcement that Victim never came to his residence at all. On a later occasion, Defendant told law enforcement that Father had killed Victim while Defendant was outside the house. Finally, Defendant told the police that he spoke to Victim on the phone, and when Victim told Defendant that he was going to come to Defendant's residence to get the vehicle and money for the debt that Father owed him, Defendant warned Victim that, if he arrived, “[Y]ou may catch a bullet.” “Right afterwards[,]” Defendant stated that he was “just kidding[.]” Father's sole pre-trial statement to law enforcement was that Defendant shot Victim in the back while Victim was turning away from Defendant.
After Victim was shot and killed, neither Defendant nor Father contacted law enforcement about the shooting. Instead, Defendant covered Victim's body in a blanket and floor rug, and with Father's help, transported the body to Father's property, where they dumped Victim's body down a well that was approximately fifty-feet deep. Over the next several days, Defendant and Father methodically buried Victim's body by filling the well with dirt and rocks. When the well was completely filled, they turned the surface area into a flower garden. Over a month later, law enforcement executed a search warrant and recovered Victim's body by excavating the dirt and rock that covered it."
The above quote is from this decision:
DeleteSTATE OF MISSOURI v. DAMYON WAYNE FISHER (2024)
Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District,
STATE OF MISSOURI, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. DAMYON WAYNE FISHER, Defendant-Appellant.
No. SD38329
Decided: December 31, 2024
KATHARINE P. CURRY, Columbia, Mo, for Appellant. WENSDAI BROOKS, Jefferson City, Mo, for Respondent.
Damyon Wayne Fisher (“Defendant”) challenges his convictions, after a jury trial, of one count of second-degree murder (see section 565.021, RSMo 2016, including, as applicable, statutory changes effective January 1, 2017) and one count of armed criminal action (see section 571.015, RSMo Cum. Supp. 2020). Defendant's sole point on appeal claims the circuit court abused its discretion in sustaining the prosecutor's objection to a question defense counsel asked during voir dire. Because the question asked the panel members about how they personally would act in a hypothetical situation that strongly mirrored the alleged facts of the State's case against Defendant, the circuit court did not abuse its discretion in sustaining the State's objection.