PROSECUTOR: MURDER FELONY RULE USEFUL TOOL

Rule Invoked In Charging Carthage Man In Death Of His 11-Month-Old Son

The Jasper County prosecutor's decision to charge a Carthage father with
murder in the death of his son allegedly caused by the infant's ingestion
of leftovers from a methamphetamine "cook" may have set up the first case
of its precise type in Missouri.

But not of its kind.

County prosecutors have been invoking Missouri's murder felony rule in a
wide array of cases for a number of years. The rule permits a defendant to
be charged with second-degree murder if a death occurs as a consequence of
their commission of another felony.

Dennis D. Doubet, 33, of Carthage was charged this week with second-degree
murder and felony manufacturing of a controlled substance in connection
with the death of his 11-month-old son, Zarrin Doubet, on Sept. 23.
Authorities believe the boy died from drinking Coleman fuel left over from
a meth cook.

Dean Dankelson, the county prosecutor, said he is not aware of any similar
murder cases in Missouri. But this is not the first time the Jasper County
prosecutor's office has invoked the felony murder rule, he said.

"It does not happen very often," Dankelson said. "But when it does, it's a
valuable tool prosecutors can use."

He said the facts in the Doubet case fit the elements of the murder felony
rule.

The prosecutor's office is not maintaining that Doubet deliberately killed
his son by feeding him camp fuel from a meth cook. What they will try to
prove at trial is that he was cooking methamphetamine in the house where he
and his wife, Maranda Doubet, and their three children lived, and in doing
so created the circumstances under which the infant found and drank the
fuel that killed him.

"Making methamphetamine is extremely dangerous and potentially deadly, and
we believe, in this case, was deadly," Dankelson said.

Scott Holste, spokesman for the Missouri attorney general's office, said he
was not aware of any other cases in the state where a defendant was charged
with murder for the death of a child related to the manufacture of
methamphetamine.

Holste said the attorney general's office does not keep a database of
county cases that would permit verification of the Doubet case's
singularity. He said a search of second-degree murder cases appealed to the
Missouri Supreme Court did not turn up any involving a child's death from
ingestion of methamphetamine or its components.

The murder felony rule is probably most commonly used in drunk driving
cases, Holste said.

The rule was first invoked in Jasper County in the case of Marques Rodgers
more than eight years ago. Rodgers and his brother allegedly tried to kill
an informant who was to testify against him on drug charges. But the
attempt backfired on them and the informant wound up shooting and killing
Rodgers' brother in what was deemed self-defense.

The murder charge filed against Rodgers for allegedly causing his brother's
death eventually was dropped in favor of his prosecution on federal charges
instead.

Nicholas W. Hibbert of Joplin was convicted under the rule about four years
ago. Hibbert and two other defendants, Stephen Johnson and Michael Davis,
were accused of jumping Rick Kimbrough, 34, outside his 20th Street
apartment. Kimbrough was beaten and stabbed before being taken to a
secluded rock quarry where he was pushed into the water to die.

Hibbert, who claimed not to know that Johnson had a knife and intended to
stab Kimbrough and not to have left a truck he had followed them in to the
quarry, was convicted of second-degree murder because Kimbrough died during
the commission of another felony, kidnapping, of which Hibbert also was
found guilty.

There's also a second felony murder rule case pending in Jasper County that
involves alleged methamphetamine-related activities.

Christopher K. Clark, 29, of Springfield stands accused of second-degree
murder in the death of Brandon Riffell, 24, of Aurora. Clark allegedly was
driving a car that exploded on U.S. 71 at Carthage on Nov. 26, 2001.
Riffell was a passenger in the car.

Authorities allege the vehicle was a rolling meth lab.