NEOSHO, Mo. (AP) A southwest Missouri man has been acquitted in the shooting death of a man who he claimed was threatening him and his family.
A McDonald County jury on Thursday acquitted 41-year-old Matthew Bowman in the 2015 death of 38-year-old Jimmie Tillery of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. He was charged with second-degree murder with an option of involuntary manslaughter.
The Joplin Globe reports Bowman shot Tillery five times as Tillery sat in his pickup truck at a home in rural McDonald County. Bowman said Tillery began threatening to kill him shortly after he and his sons moved into the house with Tillery’s ex-wife. He said he believed Tillery was armed and acting violent that day.
Prosecutor Bill Dobbs said jurors decided the shooting was justified under the state’s “stand your ground” law.
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