By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
NEVADA, Mo. — The probe into a bizarre kidnapping in New Jersey and a related home invasion in Missouri has taken another wild turn with the arrest of a fourth suspect, a man who claims to be the son of Hell’s Angels founder Sonny Barger.
Deputy sheriffs arrested William James Barger, 48, early this week at a home outside Nevada, and he remained in custody Wednesday at the Vernon County Jail without any bond set.
Warrants were issued late Tuesday charging Barger with 11 felonies as the purported ringleader behind a home invasion two months ago near the town of Richards. Authorities believe that Barger directed three other men to commit that crime and the kidnapping of a New Jersey pet store owner who was taken to Missouri at gunpoint over the weekend before managing to escape the clutches of his captors at Lake Ozark.
In both instances, the suspects reportedly were looking for a man named Jeff Muller. Investigators say the three men snatched the wrong Jeff Muller in New Jersey.
Three suspects in the abduction of Jeffrey Muller, 59, from the parking lot of his pet store in Newton, N.J., remained in custody Wednesday at the Miller County Jail. Douglas Stangeland, 46, of Nevada, and Lonnie Swarnes, 44, and Swarnes’ nephew, Andrew Wadel, 21, both of Rich Hill, also are believed to have burst into the home of Charles and Linda Scammell, wearing masks and armed with guns, the night of Nov. 9. They have yet to be charged with the crime.
Charles Scammell was shot in the hand during the home invasion and reportedly lost three fingers. The couple were left tied up in their kitchen.
Barger is charged with burglary, assault, two counts of kidnapping and four counts of armed criminal action in connection with the home invasion, and he was arraigned Wednesday morning in Vernon County Circuit Court. He also is charged with tampering with evidence, unlawful possession of a weapon as a felon and possession of an illegal firearm.
Deputies searched the home where Barger was arrested and seized some computers. Ron Peckman, Vernon County sheriff, said Stangeland and Barger both have been living at the address.
“The house had been cleaned out,” Peckman said. “But we obtained information that everything had been moved to another residence in Nevada.”
A search was conducted at the other home, and 17 guns were seized, including a sawed-off shotgun and two nickel-plated pistols, the sheriff said. Also seized at the second home were computers, maps, portable GPS car navigation systems, machetes and knives, he said.
A probable-cause affidavit filed in Vernon County states that Swarnes told an FBI agent after his arrest in Lake Ozark that he, Wadel and Stangeland were “prospects” for a new Midwest chapter of the Hell’s Angels that Barger was starting up, and that Barger claims to be the son of Sonny Barger, founder of the Oakland chapter of the famed motorcycle club.
Swarnes told another investigator that the three “prospects” committed the Scammell home invasion in November on Barger’s orders, the affidavit states. Swarnes said they were to make contact with Charles Scammell and question him about “Jeffrey Muller.” The affidavit states that Swarnes said Stangeland was the one who shot Scammell in the hand during the invasion.
Peckman told the Globe that the victims’ account of the home invasion differs from Swarnes’ account in some respects. The sheriff said investigators were told that Charles Scammell got up from a chair in the den of his home when the men entered the home and was ordered to sit back down.
“When he did not do so, the man who told him to sit down fired off one round from a sawed-off shotgun,” Peckman said.
Scammell was struck and fell to the floor, the sheriff said. He said the men then pulled Scammell and his wife into their kitchen and bound them to chairs with zip ties. He said the men kept asking Scammell who he was, and he kept telling them. It was not until one of them found identification in Linda Scammell’s purse that they appeared to believe him and their manner became more passive, the sheriff said.
Scammell, owner of a construction company based in Kansas City, heard the men talking about a Jeff Muller, the name of a former business partner. But the men never told Scammell why they were looking for Muller, the sheriff said.
