By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Matthew Laurin has confessed to accompanying Darren Winans to the home of Robert and Ellen Sheldon the night of Oct. 11 for a planned robbery, but he claims that Winans was the one who stabbed the couple to death, according to a search-warrant document.
An affidavit filed by a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigator to obtain a warrant to search Laurin’s home in Springfield states that Laurin told detectives in an interview July 7 that he and Winans drove to the couple’s home west of Carthage.
Once inside the residence on Black Powder Lane, Winans killed the Sheldons, Laurin reportedly told the detectives. Laurin reportedly admitted that he got blood on his shoes and some gloves that he was wearing, but he claimed that Winans was the one who wielded the knife.
Laurin reportedly told investigators he drove his black Honda Prelude to the couple’s home, and that after the murders, the men went back to his home in Springfield. He told detectives that the jeans he was wearing that night were still at his home.
Search-warrant documents obtained from Greene County Circuit Court show that investigators seized 13 pairs of jeans, two guns, a bundle of knives, and some marijuana plants and drug paraphernalia in a search of Laurin’s residence on July 8.
Both Laurin, 19, and Winans, 21, of rural Jasper, are charged with the slayings. Each faces two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and a single count of first-degree burglary.
Grisly scene
Other search-warrant documents related to the Sheldon case that were returned recently in Jasper County Circuit Court reveal details of a grisly scene that investigators encountered inside the Sheldons’ home. The documents suggest that the murder scene was rife with blood and trace evidence, which may still be getting processed at local or state crime labs.
The affidavit filed to obtain an initial search warrant for the home states that deputies were called to the residence late on the morning of Oct. 12 after the couple’s son Danny Sheldon discovered their bodies.
Deputies found Ellen Sheldon lying on her back on the floor just inside a hallway door at the west entrance of the house. She had a stab wound to her chest, the affidavit states. Robert Sheldon was found seated in a chair in the living room. He had multiple stab wounds, the affidavit states.
Deputies noted a blood trail leading to the couple’s dog, which also had been stabbed to death. The document designates the location of the dog’s body in a small room between outer and inner west-entry doors.
The search warrant’s inventory indicates considerable blood spatter near Ellen Sheldon’s body, blood on the bolt lock of the interior door of the west entranceway, and blood on light switches in the living room and a stairwell off the living room.
Bloodstains also were found on the carpet of a family room, and on paperwork, a pocketbook, a box and a pill bottle in the family room. Blood also was found on the door and light switch of a bathroom, and on a note, “a rolo-calendar” and an appointment card found on a counter of the bathroom.
More blood was noted on the floor and a rug near the back door, along with a bloody boot print, and on the screen door of the Old Cabin Shop, the couple’s business next door to their home.
The inventory does not indicate which bloodstains and smears are believed to be pertinent to the murders or which, if any, may constitute significant evidence.
Search-warrant documents also confirm that Winans’ name came up early in the murder probe. On Oct. 24, sheriff’s deputies searched a Jasper man’s pickup truck that was in storage at a wrecker service in Carthage. The truck had been seized Oct. 12 as part of an ongoing burglary investigation, according to a probable-cause affidavit for the search warrant.
The affidavit states that investigators received information that the truck’s owner broke down emotionally the day after the Sheldon murders, and confessed to an acquaintance that he and Winans committed the murders.
Detectives found a bloodstain on the inside of the driver’s side door of the truck. A return on the warrant also notes possible bloodstains or smears on the bottom of the passenger seat and glove box, and says that two pairs of jeans and two shirts with stains were found in the truck.
The owner of the truck has not been charged in the Sheldon case and may have been eliminated as a suspect early in the investigation.
The Globe learned of the search-warrant information late Wednesday afternoon and was unable to reach detectives about the matter.
Court date
Matthew Laurin did not appear at a scheduled hearing Wednesday morning in Jasper County Circuit Court. The next hearing date for both defendants is Aug. 5.
Court records show that two local public defenders who have been representing the defendants have been replaced by attorneys from the state public defender’s office. Joseph Zuzul, of Nevada, has filed an entry of appearance on behalf of Darren Winans. Chris Hatley, of Monett, has entered the case for Laurin.
