‘It was chaotic’: Three witnesses testify to events surrounding Oct. 2022 beating death of Hannibal man

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Two men who had spent all day with Dusty Wilson and tried to prevent him from getting into a fight couldn’t definitively say they saw Tiara Bonner slap Wilson outside Rumor Has It Bar and Grill in Hannibal on the morning of Oct. 9, 2022.

A woman who said she “saw everything” and claimed to see Bonner stomp on Wilson’s head was asked if she was protecting her sister. “Absolutely not,” was her terse reply.

Four witnesses took the stand during the second day of Bonner’s trial, which is expected to take five days in St. Charles County Circuit Court. 

Bonner, 29, appeared with Public Defender Austin Smith before Circuit Judge Christopher McDonough and a six-man, six-woman jury. She has been charged with first-degree assault and second-degree murder for her alleged involvement in the bar fight that resulted in the death of Wilson, 49, of Hannibal.

Bonner faces 10 to 30 years or a life sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections if found guilty on either charge, both Class A felonies.

College friends get together for golf outing

Gabe Worthington and Hunter Steen, roommates for two years in college, got together for a golf tournament on the morning of Oct. 8, 2022. Worthington explained how he, Steen and Wilson later “had a good time” visiting two bars — the American Legion and Sportsman’s — and Old Milt’s, a strip club, before going to Rumor Has It Bar and Grill after 1 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2022.

Worthington said he was talking with two friends when he heard yelling on the sidewalk outside the bar. He said Wilson was arguing with a crowd of “three or four people.”

“I heard some commotion and yelling going on. Then I approached that,” Worthington said. “… I kind of got in the middle of it and just tried to settle both sides down.”

“During this argument, who was kind of leading the pack?” Assistant Attorney General Corie Geary asked.  

“It was mostly Dusty, and then Tiara Bonner,” Worthington said.

As Worthington turned his back to the group and tried to push Wilson away, he said someone threw “a punch or a slap” at Wilson. Worthington said Bonner pushed him into Wilson, but when Geary asked if she threw the punch, Worthington replied, “I can’t say for sure, because I was facing Dusty.”

“It just got chaotic,” Worthington said.

During cross-examination, Smith asked Worthington if he saw Bonner stomp on Wilson.

“When I replay that night, I don’t recall that,” he said.

“You’ve heard about it afterward, right?” Smith asked.

“That’s kind of the story I was told,” Worthington replied.

‘I was shocked. I was scared’

Steen said he was pushed out of the way during the fight. He said one person came up aggressively to him as if he was ready to fight, but Steen put his hands up to de-escalate the situation.

He was shown a video taken from the North American Trading Post, next door to Rumor Has It, that showed the crowd move from the sidewalk into Main Street, where Wilson eventually was found dead.

“I saw a number of people hitting Dusty while he was on the ground,” Steen said. “It didn’t look like he was moving.”

“What were you thinking?” Geary asked.

“I was shocked. I was scared,” Steen said. “I was worried that Dusty was not moving.”

He identified Bonner as a person he saw strike Wilson on the ground.

During cross-examination, Steen admitted he was drunk that night. He said he saw seven to 10 people around Wilson in the street.

“Do you know for sure you saw Tiara hitting him?” Smith asked.

“I saw it. I don’t know what else to say,” Steen said.

Smith later asked Steen about the slap outside the bar on the sidewalk.

“You weren’t facing Tiara when that slap occurred, were you?” Smith asked.

Steen said he was turned around.

“You turned around afterward?” Smith asked. “How do you know for sure it was her who slapped him?”

“I turned around after it happened,” Steen said.

Shannon Rickey ‘100 percent positive’ Bonner stomped on Wilson

Shannon Rickey testified that she got to Rumor Has It around 10 p.m., and she said she helped serve drinks as the evening wore on. She said she was inside the bar when she saw arguing on the sidewalk, and she said she was Bonner “reach around (Worthington) and smack (Wilson) upside the head.”

“I heard Dusty say, ‘Don’t hit me again,’” Shannon Rickey said.

She said she then told Bonner to “let it go,” but later heard one of the Payne brothers (Thomas and Jordan) say something to her and she replied, “Yeah, nobody’s going to mess with my family.” Shannon Rickey then said she went back inside the bar and told an employee to “call the cops.”

She then said she looked out the window of the bar and saw “one of the Payne brothers” and Wilson walking out to the street, where they “squared up and started swinging at each other.”

“As soon as crowd started clearing out, I walked outside and checked on Gabe to make sure he was OK,” Shannon Rickey said. “As I was walking out there, I witnessed Tiara stomp him, Dusty, in the head, and then witnessed Jason (Anderson) kicking him.”

“Did you and Jason have any type of interaction?” Geary asked.

“Yes. After Jason kicked (Wilson) the first time, I went up to Jason, put my hands on his chest and kind of pushed him back and told him to get off of him because he was going to kill him,” Shannon Rickey said.

She later testified she was “100 percent” positive that Bonner stomped on Wilson.

During cross-examination, Smith said Shannon Rickey was heard in an audio recording saying repeatedly, “They beat (Wilson) the f**k up.” Kaelin Rickey was heard saying, “Because he stuck his f**king fist in my face.” Shannon yelled at her younger sister to “sit the f**k down and shut up.”

A video from HPD officer Dalton Benn’s body camera showed a distraught Shannon Rickey saying at first she didn’t want to give him a statement about what happened because she didn’t want to risk anything happening to her children. “I can’t put my kids in danger,” she tearfully said, explaining she didn’t need “any more drama or stress” in her life.

“Did you tell Officer Benn that you saw Tiara Bonner stomp him in the head?” Smith asked.

“I don’t remember if I did not,” Shannon Rickey said. “I recall I said there was a lot of kicking and punching.”

“You didn’t give any more detail than they were just kicking and punching. Is that what you’re saying here today?” Smith said.

“It was two years ago, and you forget things, and some things come back to you,” Shannon Rickey said.

“Because you’re trying to protect your little sister. Kaelin, for what she said she did,” Smith said.

“Absolutely not,” Shannon Rickey said. “If she did something, she’s in the wrong.”

“She got arrested, so she must be wrong,” Smith said.

“Must be,” Shannon Rickey said.

Kaelin Rickey 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 her plea, counts of second-degree murder and evidence tampering were dismissed.

Doctor sees ‘plenty of evidence’ that Wilson was assaulted

Dr. Douglas C. Miller, a neuropathologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia from 2007 until he retired last year and now lives in Colorado, testified about his examination of Wilson’s brain. He said Wilson had an abnormally large heart for a man who was only 5-foot-6, and his brain also was abnormally large. 

Miller wrote in a report that Wilson died because of blunt head trauma, cerebral edema (swelling of the brain), central herniation, upward herniation and cerebellar herniation, and compression of the brain’s ventricles. He pointed out in autopsy photos an abrasion over Wilson’s right eyebrow and on the right side of his nose, a laceration on his right cheek, swelling under his right eye and hemorrhaging in his right eye.

Miller said Dr. Michael Graham, who will testify for the defense this week, wrote in his report that the head injuries suffered by Wilson were “not significant.”

“I disagree with the observation,” Miller said. “He said that was all a result of the cardiac arrest. His reasons for that, as set forth in both his report and his definitions, are erroneous. He said that you can’t get brain trauma without some sort of focal injury, like a brain hemorrhage, and that’s just not true.”

He later said, “There’s plenty of evidence this man was assaulted, both in terms of witnesses and in terms of physical evidence.”

“Are those injuries (suffered by Wilson) consistent with blunt force trauma?” Geary asked.

“Yeah, I don’t think they’re consistent. That’s too weak of a word,” Miller said. “They are diagnostic.”

During cross-examination, Miller admitted the determination of a cause of death is not “an exact science.”