Read Pleads Guilty In Death Of John Vencill

After more than two years, a Trenton man has pleaded guilty in the shooting death of another man in July 2013.
Jameson Read, now 26, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and first degree assault, both class A felonies, in connection with the death of 52-year-old John Vencill on July 3, 2013 and the assault of Vencill’s son, Tristan, then 17, later that night.
Read appeared before Third Circuit Judge Jack Peace in the Circuit Division of Grundy County on Monday morning, where a pre-trial conference was scheduled. An agreement was reached whereby Read would plea guilty to the amended charge of second degree murder (the original charge was first degree murder) and first degree assault. In exchange, the state agreed to cap the prison sentence at 21 years on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently. Read will be allowed to argue for a lesser sentence at his sentencing hearing. He could have received a sentence of not less than 10 years and not more than 30 years to life in prison.
By pleading guilty, Read admitted that on July 3, 2013 he killed John Vencill with an AK-47 while he sat across from him at Read’s home on Speedway in Trenton. He also admitted that he assaulted Tristan Vencill on the head with a hammer at the residence of James Bowe near Humphreys. While earlier accounts indicated that the assault occurred on July 4, Read said it occurred on the night of July 3.
Scott Fox of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, who was appearing on behalf of the state, also told Judge Peace that a deferred prosecution agreement is also being filed in connection with other charges facing Read. Read’s other charges include armed criminal action, abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. Fox said the deferment has a sunset clause that will coincide with the disposition of charges against Bowe in connection with the case.
Read had earlier admitted to Trenton police officers that he shot John Vencill twice in the chest and once in the head with an AK47 after an argument over money and business. He said he later placed the body in the trunk of Vencill’s 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier and drove it to rural Sullivan County, where it was later submerged in a pond in an attempt to conceal it. Read led officers to the car in the pond, which was located in a field off Highway 139 near the Linn County line.
Tristan Vencill testified in March 2014 that on July 3, 2013 his older brother, Ryan Vencill of Trenton, took him to Jim Bowe’s property near Humphreys, telling him they were going to get some of their father’s belongings that were there. Ryan picked him up at his grandmother’s house in Trenton and drove him to the Bowe residence, where he was assaulted by Read and Ryan Vencill while Bowe stood nearby watching.
Bowe is also charged with first degree assault, abandonment of a corpse, two counts of tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution and unlawful possession of a firearm. During a preliminary hearing held in Grundy County in March 2014, he was accused of assisting in the assault of Tristan, of pushing the car into the pond, of assisting in the burning a chair cushion and a blanket that had John Vencill’s blood on it and cleaning the AK-47 assault rifle allegedly used in the murder. Bowe has a felony conviction for non-support that makes it illegal for him to possess a firearm. Bowe is currently being held in the Grundy County Detention Center after violating the conditions of his bond on the first degree assault charge. Online court records show he is scheduled to appear in Adair County Court on Jan. 12, 2016 on two charges of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Ryan Vencill pleaded guilty to second degree assault in connection with the attack on his brother and is serving a five-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Grundy County Prosecuting Attorney Carrie Lamm Clark, who returned to her Trenton office this week after being mobilized with the Missouri National Guard in January, said Assistant County Prosecutor Adam Warren handled the negotiations in the case, with Fox of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office appearing in court alone on the case Monday due to a scheduling conflict for Warren. Mrs. Clark said she will handle the sentencing hearing, set for 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 30.