One final case: Hannibal man charged with murder, assault in death of Dusty Wilson to go on trial Oct. 21

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — One more person will stand trial in the St. Charles County Courthouse later this month for the 2022 death of a Hannibal man.

Jason D. Anderson, 26, of Hannibal, has been charged with first-degree assault and second-degree murder — the same charges Tiara Bonner was found guilty of after nearly 5½ hours of deliberation on Friday by a six-man, six-woman jury from St. Charles County.

The jury believed Bonner kicked Dusty Wilson, 49, of Hannibal and caused his death at the end of an Oct. 9, 2022, bar fight outside Rumor Has It Bar and Grill. The jury sentenced Bonner to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on the second-degree murder charge and to 13 years in prison on the first-degree assault charge. Bonner was eligible to receive up to 30 years in prison or a life sentence on each charge.

Bonner’s case will wrap on Dec. 5. Judge Christopher McDonough will receive a sentencing assessment report about 10 days before that date and determine if Bonner’s sentences will run consecutively or concurrently. She is required to serve 85 percent of the final sentence.

During last week’s trial, Anderson was alleged to have kicked Wilson during the same bar fight. 

Anderson’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 21 with jury selection. The attorneys representing the state in Bonner’s trial — Assistant Attorney Generals Corie Geary and Kate Welborn and Marion County Prosecuting Attorney Luke Bryant — will do the same in Anderson’s trial. 

McDonough, who presided over the Bonner trial, will return for the Anderson trial.

Public Defender Austin Smith defended Bonner, but Anderson’s defense attorney is Patrick Ochs with the Chesterfield firm of Ochs and Klein.

Ochs filed a motion in April to change Anderson’s bond from no bond to $1 million, which McDonough granted in May.  As part of McDonough’s decision, he also ordered Anderson to have no contact with the Wilson family, Bonner or the state’s witnesses. He also was to live in his family’s home and have 24-hour GPS monitoring. However, Anderson remains incarcerated in the Marion County Jail.

Ochs also filed a motion for the Bonner and Anderson cases to be severed and for Anderson’s case to be tried separately. McDonough granted that motion in May.

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,” 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.

Rickey testified in Bonner’s trial last week.