By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
CASSVILLE, Mo. — A trial in Cassville ended prematurely when a woman convicted of murder by jury verdict Thursday night committed suicide before the trial’s penalty phase was to begin Friday morning.
Barry County authorities said Adella Fae Patton, 47, took an overdose of medication and died at her home in Monett just hours after being found guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
“She hadn’t even been sentenced yet,” Barry County Prosecutor Johnnie Cox told the Globe. “We hadn’t completed the second phase of the trial, and she was still out on bond.”
Patton had been free on $250,000 bond before her trial in the December 2005 shooting death of Kevin L. Madison, 45, of rural Exeter. Senior Circuit Judge J. Edward Sweeney allowed the bond to remain in place after the guilty verdicts were returned by jurors about 8 p.m. Thursday and the court recessed for the night.
Coroner Jim Fohn confirmed that Patton died of an overdose of medication at her home. He said
Patton left behind notes indicating that she could not serve a term in prison. Her body was received by White Funeral Home in Cassville.
Patton’s attorneys, John Lewright and Robert Foulke, could not be reached for comment.
The trial began Monday in Barry County Circuit Court in Cassville, with the state concluding its case Wednesday and the defense presenting testimony Thursday. Patton testified on her own behalf, telling jurors that she shot Madison in self-defense.
Trial testimony showed that Patton and Madison had an “on-again, off-again” relationship, and were living in separate residences near Exeter at the time of the shooting.
A Barry County Sheriff’s Department investigation found that she called Madison on Dec. 11, 2005, and asked him to get his deer meat out of her freezer. He drove to her place, and she brought the meat out to him, according to the investigation.
An argument ensued during which the Sheriff’s Department believes Madison struck Patton a few times. She went back into her house and re-emerged with a .22-caliber revolver.
There were no witnesses to what happened next, other than Patton and Madison, Cox said. A male friend of Patton, who was inside the house, told investigators that he did not see what took place, the prosecutor said.
Cox said investigators believe Patton fired a shot over Madison’s head while he was partially turned away from her and intending to leave. But Patton testified that Madison had come at her after she fired a warning shot in an effort to get him to leave and had grabbed for the gun when she shot him in the head.
Patton’s attorneys presented evidence that Madison was convicted two years previously of a domestic assault on Patton, but chose not to argue a battered-woman-syndrome defense at trial. They instead employed a self-defense argument.
Prior threats
The prosecution argued in Adella Patton’s murder trial that she was in a position where she did not have to come back out of the home and shoot Kevin Madison. Several witnesses for the state testified that Patton had been issuing oral threats toward Madison prior to the shooting and that she was aware that he had gone to Arkansas the previous day to meet another woman.