Jury Convicts Bethany Father of Murder, Arson

ST. JOSEPH, MO — A Buchanan County jury found Tony King guilty of first-degree murder, arson and child abuse in the death of his 7-year-old son, Jeremiah, a first grader at South Harrison Elementary School at Bethany. Authorities say the boy may have died several hours before his body was found in the remains of a burning trailer home on Jan. 11, 2012, on Route W northwest of Bethany. Circuit Judge Randall Jackson presided over the 4-day trial. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 13 in Buchanan County Circuit Court. Robert Hunter, 33, now serving a term for drug possession in Boonville Correctional Center, testified in court that King called him the night before the trailer fire and that when he went to see King, he saw a child lying in the seat of a truck with an arm sticking out of a blanket. The child was motionless, and King explained the boy wasn’t feeling well. Hunter offered this testimony in return for a reduced prison sentence. Hunter denied that King told him that King had killed his son. An autopsy revealed several bruises on the boy’s body and marks around his neck that occurred within 24 hours of the fire. Although the pathologist testifying in the trial said the child’s body was heavily damaged by the fire, he concluded the child had died of manual strangulation since there was no carbon monoxide in the boy’s blood nor presence of soot in his lungs.