By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to stealing a rifle from the Old Cabin Shop outside Carthage almost three weeks before the couple who owned the shop were murdered in their home next door.

Zachary S. Townsend, of Jasper, changed his plea to guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin on a felony charge of theft of a firearm. A plea agreement with the county prosecutor’s office would limit any prison time he might be assessed to no more than two years.

Townsend confessed to his and Darren Winans’ theft of a .17-caliber Savage rifle from the shop owned by Robert and Ellen Sheldon, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed by the Jasper County Sheriff’s Department. The confession came 10 days after the couple’s murder the night of Oct. 11, 2008, the affidavit said.

Townsend is believed to have distracted Robert Sheldon while Winans, 21, of rural Jasper, swiped the gun on Sept. 23 of last year, the affidavit states. Winans and Matthew D. Laurin, 19, of Springfield, are accused of going back to the shop and the Sheldons’ home, and killing the couple in a robbery attempt less than three weeks later.

Winans and Laurin each is facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and a single count of first-degree burglary. Winans also is charged with the theft of the gun.

Townsend is not charged in the Sheldon murders, and the Sheriff’s Department has said he is not suspected of having played any role in them.

A court affidavit states that Townsend engraved his initials on the forestock of the rifle after he and Winans shoplifted the gun. Townsend reportedly told investigators that he later swapped the rifle to another man for eight OxyContin pills. Investigators retrieved the weapon from the other man during their investigation of the theft, according to court records.

Circuit Judge Gayle Crane on Monday ordered the completion of a sentencing-assessment report on Townsend and set Oct. 19 as the date for his sentencing.