Jurors began hearing the gruesome details Tuesday surrounding the March 2016 death of Iolan Shawn Cook.
Testimony opened in Day 2 of the first-degree murder trial of Joshua Knapp, who is the last of five defendants originally charged in Cooks killing.
In his opening statement, Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway spelled out the prosecutions case: that a failed drug deal led to Knapp murdering Cook the night of March 13, 2016.
Hathaway said it was Knapp who borrowed a pickup from co-defendant James Myers, with the intention of taking Cook to a desolate area of Allen County and killing him.
However, slitting Cooks throat failed to kill the 33-year-old, Hathaway said, so Knapp and another co-defendant, Amber Boeken, instead sought a second vehicle Myers gas tank was nearly empty in order to transport Cook to a desolate part of the Neosho River near Neosho Falls. Hathaway said Boeken and Knapp took Cook to Rhonda Jacksons home, where Boeken called another man, Brent Cagle of Bronson, to use his pickup.
Cagle then drove Knapp, Boeken and a bloodied Cook on an exhaustive trip through northwest Allen County before finding the river, in order to dump Cooks body.
It was upon reaching the river the trio realized Cook was still alive, Hathaway said, which compelled Knapp to jump into the water and repeatedly stab Cook in the neck again, with such force that one of the stab wounds severed Cooks tongue.
From there, the trio returned to Jacksons home, where Knapp allegedly returned Myers pickup, but only after he and Myers washed blood out of the back at a local car wash.
Myers later accompanied Knapp and Boeken to a rural farmhouse, Hathaway said, where Knapps and Boekens clothes were burned, as were a pair of knives allegedly used in Cooks murder. Myers also removed the truck bed liner from his vehicle, Hathaway said.
DEFENSE attorney John Boyd countered it was Boeken and Cagle, not Knapp, who killed Cook; that it was Boeken and Jackson who had motive to see Cook punished for the failed drug deal.
Rhonda Jackson got ripped off by Shawn Cook, and she sent Amber Boeken to collect that debt, Boyd said. When Shawn couldnt pay, Amber Boeken killed him.
Boyd pointed to a number of inconsistencies in statements Boeken, Myers and Jackson gave to police in the days following Cooks disappearance. (He was reported missing by relatives March 16; his body was found 16 days later.)
All three had impugned others before eventually telling investigators it was Knapp who committed the crime, Boyd said.
Boyd described Knapp and Cook as friends.
There arent going to be any credible witnesses who can convince you Joshua Knapp is guilty of murder, Boyd said.
