Mea Culpa

Testimony in the Tiara Bonner trial concluded late Thursday afternoon, and a story about Thursday’s testimony will be published on Muddy River News on Friday morning.

But first, an apology is in order.

An Oct. 8, 2023 story, written by me for Muddy River News, reported Thomas Payne had been found guilty of third-degree assault in connection to the Oct. 9, 2022 death of Dusty Wilson of Hannibal outside a Hannibal bar. Payne eventually received a seven-year sentence to the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Included in that story was the following paragraph:

“The probable cause statement in the case against Tiara Bonner and Jason Anderson, both charged with second-degree murder and first-degree assault, indicated a witness testified and a video showed the two stomping and kicking Wilson when he was on the ground.”

Sitting through four days of Bonner’s trial in a St. Charles County Courthouse made it crystal clear no such video exists.

Family and friends supporting Bonner this week approached me outside the courtroom on Thursday and pointed out the mistake — which they knew a year ago. They simply asked for a correction and an apology.

Was Muddy River News given incorrect information? Possibly. Did I make an incorrect assumption writing the story? Possibly. The story is one year old, so we’ll never know for sure why a mistake was made. It’s our job at Muddy River News to correct mistakes, regardless of how they were made or who made them. It is imperative to get the facts right.

The story was corrected Thursday night. It can’t erase the frustration or anger the mistake caused Bonner’s family and friends. We can’t apologize enough for that.

But it’s never too late to correct a mistake.

Thank you for your continued support of Muddy River News.

David Adam

Editor, Muddy River News