Springfield man found guilty in Willingham murders

Almost five years after the crime, a Springfield man was found guilty Friday in the 2011 stabbing deaths of Don and Helen Willingham.

After close to six hours of deliberation, the jury decided that Jose Huckleberry, 28, was guilty of two counts of second-degree murder for killing the Willinghams, both 79, in their home just southwest of Springfield on April 25, 2011.

Prosecutors say Huckleberry went to the Willinghams' home on Swan Street about 5:30 a.m. that day to burglarize the residence, but things went wrong.

The Willinghams' children, Doug, David and Donna, each said Friday they were pleased with the verdict and they have already forgiven Huckleberry.

"It’s like a burden has been lifted off your shoulders," David Willingham said. "It’s been a long time and a heavy weight. And wow, I didn’t realize how heavy it was until it’s gone."

Huckleberry will be formally sentenced in April. He faces up to 30 years in prison for each of the murder charges and up to 15 years in prison for a first-degree burglary conviction in this case.

Huckleberry's attorney Dewayne Perry argued throughout the five-day trial that Huckleberry was in bed in north Springfield at the time of the killings and had nothing to do with the deaths.

The main evidence presented by the prosecutors in the case was a 2012 interview with Greene County detectives in which Huckleberry initially denied any involvement in the deaths and then told the detectives that he killed the couple. He later said he killed Don Willingham and one of his associates killed Helen Willingham.

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Prosecutors played almost the entire seven and a half hour interview for the jury earlier this week.

Perry said in his closing arguments Friday that the detectives lied to Huckleberry in the interview and persuaded him to confess to a crime he didn't commit.

"Lies don’t lead to the truth," Perry said. "That’s not how it works."

Perry pointed out that Huckleberry's confession at times was not consistent with the evidence in the case.

Both sides said DNA evidence in the case worked in their favor.

Perry pointed out that none of the DNA at the scene was a definite match with Huckleberry's DNA. Prosecutors, meanwhile, pointed out that Huckleberry cannot be excluded from some of the DNA recovered at the scene.

During the trial, prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call Helen Willingham made during the attack.

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Helen Willingham can be heard saying a young man got into her home and killed her husband.

She said, "He’s in here now."

And then the phone disconnects.

Prosecutors say Huckleberry was in the Willinghams' home during that call, but Perry presented evidence to the contrary.

Huckleberry's ex-girlfriend Kayla Saltzman testified that Huckleberry was in bed with her in a north Springfield home at the time of the killings. Saltzman’s mother said, however, that Huckleberry wasn’t at the house that night.

Prosecutors called a pastor to the stand early in the week to establish Huckleberry’s whereabouts in the days leading up to the killing. The pastor testified that Huckleberry was baptized the Friday before the killings.

Craig Hilburn, the Willinghams' next-door neighbor, testified Monday that he went to the couple's home the morning of the killings to retrieve their newspaper since he believed they were still out of town visiting relatives.

Hilburn testified that as he was approaching the Willinghams' front yard, he saw a slender man in a hooded sweatshirt run away from the home.

Hilburn said he chased the man but could not catch him. Hilburn then went back to the Willingham home and found Don Willingham dead in the entryway.

Prosecutors say Huckleberry was the thin man in the hoodie.

After the jury was dismissed on Thursday afternoon, there was a brief proposal in which Huckleberry’s attorneys asked the judge to admit some evidence that had previously been excluded from the trial.

During the proposal, the defense called a witness who testified that someone else had confessed to her about killing the Willinghams.

The defense also read a letter written by a Greene County Jail inmate who stated the same person had confessed to him about killing the Willinghams.

Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said the evidence presented in the proposal was excluded from the trial for a number of reasons, partly because it did not support the idea that Huckleberry did not commit the crime but instead implicated someone else. He said in Missouri there are only a limited amount of circumstances in which that defense strategy can be employed.

The proposal was a legal maneuver, according to Patterson, so the defense could get that evidence on the record in case of an appeal.

Perry, Huckleberry's attorney, declined to comment after the verdict Friday and said he is not sure if he will file an appeal.

Patterson said at this time he does not anticipate filing any additional charges in connection with this case.

Patterson thanked the jurors and the investigators for their work. He said this has been a good week for the Greene County Prosecutor's Office, with Friday's guilty verdict and a guilty plea earlier this week from Carlos "Boo" Tureaud in a separate 2012 murder case.

Don Willingham served as the first full-time executive director for General Baptists. He was also the former pastor of Liberty Hill Church in Dexter and worked at other southeast Missouri churches before settling in Springfield. He was a pastor at the Northside General Baptist Church in Springfield and also led a church in Branson.

Don and Helen Willingham started churches in Missouri and Florida and went on multiple missionary trips to places like Guam, Jamaica and the Philippines. The couple repeatedly packed up their three-bedroom home to go on the trips or serve churches in other areas.

There were more than a dozen of the couple's family members occupying the first two rows of the courtroom throughout the trial this past week.

The family members came from as far away as Colorado, Ohio and Texas to learn about the case and support one another.

Donna Fedor Willingham, Don and Helen's daughter, said the family's support meant a lot to her.

"It was an incredible help to me that they all came," Fedor Willingham said. "And there were so many more who wanted to be here."

David Willingham said his parents were great people, and he knows they are looking down on the family.

"They loved each other," David Willingham said. "If there is any good that came out of any of this, it is that we know they are in heaven together."

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