Lawyer wants mental exam for MSU instructor charged with murder

The lawyers representing a Missouri State University instructor accused of stabbing a former colleague to death said Monday their client might suffer from a mental disease or defect.

Springfield defense attorneys Dee Wampler and Joseph Passanise filed a motion Monday asking the court to have a Burrell Behavioral Health psychologist examine their new client, Edward Gutting.

Gutting, 43, has been charged with second-degree murder after police say he killed retired MSU professor Marc Cooper, 66, on Aug. 17 in Cooper's home in the 600 block of East University Street.

In a motion filed Monday, Wampler said the defense "reasonably believes Defendant may suffer from a Mental Disease or Defect Excluding Responsibility and lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against him or to assist in his own defense."

Gutting, a Princeton graduate, has taught at MSU since 2011 in history and the department of Modern and Classical Languages after spending 8 years as an assistant professor of classics at the University of Mississippi.

Police say they are still investigating the motive for the homicide.

Gutting is being held in the Greene County Jail on $1 million bond.

Wampler asked in his motion that the psychologist recommend whether Gutting should be held in a jail or a hospital facility as the case progresses.

A probable cause statement used to charge Gutting provides some insight into what prosecutors call an unprovoked attack.

The statement says Marc Cooper and his wife Nancy were sitting inside their home in the 600 block of East University Street on Aug. 17 at 7:45 p.m. when Gutting came in through the back door wielding a large knife.

Gutting chased Marc Cooper through the kitchen into the living room, knocked him down and stabbed him to death, according to the statement.

Nancy Cooper was also cut several times as police say she tried to fight with Gutting — who jail records list at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds.

The statement says Gutting told Nancy Cooper at one point "it was between him and Cooper," and he didn't want to kill her — but he would if he had to.

Nancy Cooper was eventually able to call for help, and police were dispatched to the scene.

The first-arriving officers found Gutting walking in the street outside of the Cooper residence covered in blood, according to the statement. He was arrested without incident.

Gutting's wife, Angela Hornsby-Gutting, is a history professor at Missouri State University.

MSU officials said Gutting is a “trailing spouse,” meaning he was a tag-along hire when the university made an offer to his wife.

Dean of the College of Humanities and Public Affairs Victor Matthews said when he hired Hornsby-Gutting in 2011, she asked him to find a position for her husband, who had a doctorate in classics.

Matthews said Gutting taught survey courses in the history department until he was transferred over to modern and classical languages because it was Gutting’s specialty area.

Gutting, Hornsby-Gutting and Cooper all worked together in the history department together from 2011-2014.

Cooper's friends have told the News-Leader they do not believe Gutting and Cooper were close.

Cooper worked in Missouri State's history department from 1980-2014, and served as the managing editor of the eJournal in Public Affairs, according to a news release from the university.