Jury selected in assault, murder trial for Hannibal woman in St. Charles; opening arguments set for Tuesday morning

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — A jury of six men and six women was selected Monday afternoon for the trial of a Hannibal woman facing first-degree assault and second-degree murder charges after her alleged involvement in an October 2022 bar fight.

Opening statements are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last five days.

Tiara Bonner, 29, appeared with Public Defender Austin Smith before Circuit Judge Christopher McDonough in a cramped third-floor courtroom at the St. Charles County Courthouse. 

Bonner faces 10 to 30 years or a life sentence if found guilty on either charge, which allegedly resulted in the death of Dusty Wilson, 49, of Hannibal on Oct. 9, 2022, outside Rumor Has It Bar and Grill, 125 N. Main. Both charges are Class A felonies. Bonner would have to serve at least 85 percent of her sentence.

If Bonner is found guilty, she will be sentenced at the end of the trial by the jury.

Most of Monday morning’s proceedings dealt with pretrial motions, such as: 

• A discussion about the use of racially sensitive language
• Allowing media personnel to use a still camera in the courtroom (McDonough granted this motion)
• The possible elimination of a witness
• The exclusion of evidence from a polygraph test (McDonough granted this motion)
• The exclusion of a death certificate
• The prevention of prosecuting attorneys from using the word “victim” when talking about Wilson (McDonough denied this motion)
• The use of out-of-court statements taken from a surveillance video

Sixty prospective jurors were interviewed Monday afternoon before the jury (and two alternates — a man and a woman) were selected.

A probable cause statement from the Hannibal Police Department says officers reported at around 1:50 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, to investigate an assault outside Rumor Has It. Wilson was found by officers on Main Street with substantial head trauma. He was transported to Hannibal Regional Hospital and later to a trauma center in Columbia, Mo., where he died from his injuries.

Video footage from a bystander showed Jason Anderson of Hannibal walking away from Wilson’s body, claiming, “It’s like that. Don’t ever hit no female, bro.” His fists were clenched, and he was dressed in all gray clothing.

A witness reported Anderson kicking Wilson in the face, and the witness also saw Bonner striking Wilson. The witness said Wilson was seen backing into the street as a group ran up and started hitting him. Bonner allegedly stomped on Wilson’s head while he was on the ground.

Another witness claimed Bonner stomped on Wilson’s head three times while Anderson punched and kicked him once. The witness claimed to have pushed back Anderson, who returned to kick Wilson again.

A trial for Anderson is scheduled to begin next week in St. Charles.

One other man was found guilty by a jury for his involvement in Wilson’s death, and another woman pled guilty.

A Boone County jury found Thomas Payne of Monroe City guilty of third-degree assault during an October 2023 trial. He was sentenced to seven years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. However, the jury also found Payne was not guilty of second-degree murder.

“We talked to the jury afterward, and they felt that Thomas Payne had acted alone on his own behalf and that he was not part of the group that continued to beat Dusty Wilson after Thomas Payne had kind of ended his portion of the assault,” Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Luke Bryant told Muddy River News after the end of Payne’s trial. They didn’t find him culpable of everybody else’s actions.”

Kaelin Rickey of Hannibal pled guilty to one count of second-degree assault, a Class D felony, during a Sept. 25, 2023, appearance in the Boone County Courthouse. She is awaiting sentencing. In exchange for Rickey’s plea, counts of second-degree murder and evidence tampering were dismissed.