Houston, MO. – The defense attorney for a Texas County man accused of murder in 2007 has asked that interviews in that year and 2022 be removed for potentially being unlawfully obtained.
Tommie Whetzell, age 64 of Liberal, Missouri, is charged with 1st-degree murder, armed criminal action, and discharge/shoot firearm at or from a motor vehicle, shoot at a person, another moving vehicle, or any building/habitable structure. In August 2022, defense attorney Lacon Smith successfully argued for the charge of armed criminal action be dropped and Whetzell was released on a $250,000 bond later that month.
Attention to the case investigating the death of Ricky Luebbert on November 10, 2007, was renewed in 2022 with the assistance of Oxygen Channel’s “Cold Justice”, a television show that looks into cold cases. According to the most recent motion from the defense, the interview performed by law enforcement and recorded by the television show violated Whetzell’s Fifth Amendment rights.
The defense argues in the motion that Whetzell invoked his right to counsel on November 18, 2007, meaning all interrogation of Whetzell by law enforcement must cease until the defendant consults with a lawyer.
The defense goes on to state that the interview on March 2, 2022, between law enforcement and Whetzell while being recorded by the TV crew ignored his right to counsel, thus making any information gathered during that interview illegally gained.
Additionally, the defense argues that an interview with Whetzell from November 11, 2007, was unlawfully gained as law enforcement had conducted a custodial interrogation of Whetzell without reading him his Miranda rights and says his statements made during that time were made under duress and not voluntary.
The state will have a suppression hearing on the motion on September 19, 2023, in the Texas County Courthouse.
