Sentencing of quadruple murderer, Keith Boyles; three others involved

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt recently announced the sentencing terms of Keith Boyles for his role in the quadruple homicide of two elderly couples in Ripley County (Poplar bluff), MO. In February of 2019, Boyles was convicted of four counts of murder and four counts of armed criminal action. Boyles, along with David Youngblood, Youngblood’s wife, Melissa, and their daughter Chantale, were each involved in the four murders that took place in June and July of 2010.
The evidence presented at trial was overwhelming. It showed that in 2010, Ripley County resident, David Youngblood concocted a plan to kidnap the president of a local bank, force the bank officer to open the bank’s vault in order to steal enough money to flee the United States and move his family to a non-extraditable country.
To complete his plan, David decided to “test” his daughter, Chantale, and her boyfriend, Keith Boyle, to see if they would be able to successfully carry out violent crimes by murdering David Youngblood’s aunt and uncle, Lloyd and Irene Piatt. Boyles acted on that assignment on June 23, 2010 by shooting and killing both victims and then burning down the house in an attempt to cover up the evidence.
Two and half weeks later, on July 10, 2010, Boyles and David Youngblood shot and killed Edgar Atkinson and Bonnie Chase and burned their house down during a second “test run” planned by David Youngblood. Atkinson and Chase were an elderly couple who David and Melissa Youngblood had previously known.
In 2012, David Youngblood plead guilty to four counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In 2013, Melissa was convicted after a jury found her guilty of two counts of first degree murder. Melissa was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In 2013, Chantale pled guilty to four counts of murder in the second degree for her more limited role in these murders.