By Allen Edmonds
FREEMAN – A 43-year-old Harrisonville woman is being held without bond following a chaotic face-off Friday afternoon, Aug. 16, between four adults near a residence just off Main Street in Freeman.
Misty Stufflebean was arraigned in Cass County Circuit Court Monday morning by Webex from jail, where she was arraigned and ordered held without bond pending a Thursday morning bond review hearing. She was charged with burglary and assault in connection with the incident, where deputies allege she knowingly entered a residence in the 100 block of East Main Street in Freeman to commit an assault. The assault charge alleges she purposely placed a person in fear of physical injury by trying to grab that person by the hair.
According to the probable cause affidavit written by investigating Cass County Sheriff’s Office deputies, dispatchers were notified of the shooting at 12:57 p.m. Friday. Deputies arriving on the scene located two men with apparent gunshot wounds. The men, later identified as 47-year-old Michael Spear and 27-year-old Christopher Spear, both died, one at the scene and one later at an area hospital.
Also on the scene was an adult female, later identified as Stufflebean. Two other individuals were also located, one of which was transported immediately to the Sheriff’s Office for further investigation.
According to officers, Stufflebean provided multiple stories as to what happened, first claiming she had arrived with the Spears men in an attempt to find an individual who was the purported romantic partner of one of the men.
After asking for the person they were looking for upon knocking on the door, another individual at the house “shut the door in their face and they walked away toward the vehicle.”
She said that the individual then opened the door, yelled a profanity at the group before “shooting at them.”
When telling her initial version, she denied any physical violence or threats were made toward either of the individuals in the residence.
After securing a search warrant, deputies and crime scene investigators found blood inside the doorway of the residence and on the porch, as well as two different caliber firearms. One firearm was located inside the residence, later identified as belonging to the individual who first opened the door to the residence. The other was located in the driveway. Also located at the scene were spent shell casings and a bullet lodged in a table leg, which appeared to have also struck the door frame of the residence, according to the statement.
The individual the group had come to see initially said she had come to the Main Street residence after a fight with the Speers man she was in a relationship with. She said both Speers men and Stufflebean came to the residence. Stufflebean “pushed her way into the residence and came at her,” trying to grab her by the hair.
She said she was able to push Stufflebean away, but while this was happening, one of the Speers men tried to push his way into the residence, and the person she had come to visit was trying to prevent him from getting in.
She said she heard gunshots and it sounded like two different guns. She said that later while being escorted to a patrol vehicle, Stufflebean yelled, “you’re dead, b*tch.”
Meanwhile, at the Sheriff’s Office, the man who lived at the home was explaining to deputies that he had fired his weapon twice at the Spear men while they were standing in the doorway of his residence.
He said he repeatedly told the Spear men and Stufflebean to leave, but they refused. He said Stufflebean entered and exited the residence multiple times while one of the Spear men held the door so he couldn’t close it.
He said he knew one of the Spear men to carry a firearm “religiously,” and that he was “f***ing terrified” for the safety of the woman and an autistic juvenile that were in the residence, as well as himself.
He said he retrieved his firearm from the bedroom and held it behind his back while continuing to tell the three individuals to leave, which they refused to do. He told officers he shot first one of the Spear men, then the other. He said when he turned toward one of the men, he saw that he had a firearm in his hand and was either pointing it at him or raising it toward him.
When confronted with blood evidence and the different stories from other parties, she was unable to explain the order in which things happened and asked for an attorney.
In a bond hearing later this week, Stufflebean was ordered held on no bond until her next hearing, Sept. 11.
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