David Jungerman found guilty of murder in shooting of Brookside attorney Tom Pickert

A Jackson County jury on Thursday found David G. Jungerman guilty of murder in the shooting death of a Brookside attorney.

Jungerman, an 84-year-old millionaire, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 25, 2017 shooting death of Tom Pickert, who had just returned home after walking his sons to school.

Jurors deliberated for roughly two hours. Jungerman, who has maintained he is innocent, muttered something inaudible as the jury delivered the verdict late Thursday afternoon.

He was escorted away in his wheelchair back to jail as he is scheduled to face sentencing in nine weeks.

Speaking to reporters inside the Jackson County courthouse, Tim Dollar, an attorney working on behalf of the prosecutor’s office, said the verdict showed Pickert’s family that the community had stood up for them.

“After all these years, we are very, very thankful that the jury has spoken and that justice has finally been brought to this family,” Dollar said. “We are pleased with the results.”

Jungerman’s defense attorney, Daniel Ross, told The Star that they planned to appeal.

“We were disappointed in the verdict,” Ross told The Star. “However, we are confident that the trial court will give us a fair hearing on our motion for a new trial.”

Jungerman was scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18. Under Missouri law, a first-degree murder conviction carries a minimum penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Throughout the criminal trial that has lasted nearly two weeks, prosecutors alleged that the shooting occurred because of a $5.75 million judgment Pickert won against Jungerman in a lawsuit. Pickert was representing a homeless man Jungerman shot in 2012 because he thought the man was stealing copper from the property of Jungerman’s baby furniture business.

In closing arguments, Jackson County prosecutors sought to paint a picture of Jungerman as “twisted,” and “someone with ice water in their veins.”

“With this verdict that you return here is the last chapter in the life of Tom Pickert,” Dollar said.

Key to prosecutors’ closing argument was the audio recording of Jungerman allegedly admitting that he killed Pickert. Dollar said Jungerman joked with Leo Wynne about the shooting.

In the recording, Jungerman told Wynne: “When I think about it, I grin. That (expletive) has caused me a lot of problems Leo.”

Dollar then showed jurors a photo from the crime scene that showed Pickert sprawled on the sidewalk in front of his home, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

“What kind of monster would smile or laugh about that?” Dollar said. “That is what he was talking about. That was in his mind.”

Several persons in the courtroom, including Pickert’s wife, Emily Riegel, sobbed.

Defense arguments

Ross countered that prosecutors and police settled on Jungerman as a suspect based on an alleged motive and failed to seriously look at other suspects. He also alleged Kansas City detectives falsified evidence, including surveillance video that did not fit the timeline of the theory presented by authorities.

“The state (prosecutors) ignored the facts. Why?” Ross said. “Because this fellow had a judgment against him and the lawyer who got it died, therefore he’s guilty. And that has been their approach since October 2017.”

Investigators captured on video a van that belonged to Jungerman traveling from Raytown to Pickert’s neighborhood on the day of the killing.

“When it didn’t fit their theory, they allowed evidence to mysteriously disappear,” Ross said.

License plate readers would have shown that Jungerman was elsewhere at the time of the killing, Ross said. It also would have proved that Jungerman’s van was never detected in the victim’s neighborhood prior to the shooting, he said.

Jungerman emerged as a suspect within hours of the shooting because of his connection to Pickert. Yet, the killing went unsolved for months.

Kansas City police said at one point that Jungerman, who was the focus of media scrutiny, was not a suspect.

A week before the shooting, Jackson County court officials had started the process of seizing Jungerman’s real estate to pay the $5.75 million judgment. The court filed paperwork that would prevent Jungerman from selling or transferring the property.

Prosecutors said Jungerman shot Pickert with a .17-caliber firearm, a weapon often used by farmers and ranchers to kill pests.

The trial was delayed for two days this week after defense attorneys were granted a hearing on whether Jungerman was competent to assist in his own defense. It was the latest in a series of delays in a long-running case that spanned nearly five years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among those called to testify was Riegel, Pickert’s widow, who described hearing gunfire while she was inside her home and rushing out to find her husband dead as a white van, driven by a masked man, drove away.

“I started screaming for help. I was screaming ‘stop the van,’” she testified.

After the verdict was handed down Thursday, Riegel and Dollar embraced in the courtroom. She declined to comment after the hearing.