A suspect in a murder last October in Texas County will stand trial Jan. 11-13 in Phelps County.
Michael A. Nugent, 22, of 5400 Wallen Road at Eunice, is charged in the first-degree murder of Crue D. Ridenoure, 30, of Willow Springs.
In a trial setting procedure on Monday in Texas County, Judge William Hickle also granted Nugent and his attorney a change of venue to Phelps County.
Nugent told associates he was irate that he’d been sent to the county jail in Houston after someone led a county deputy on a chase on Oct. 9.
A Mountain View man who bonded Nugent out at about 5:30 a.m. the day of the murder said the ride from Houston to Nugent’s Wallen Road residence was focused on one topic: Nugent saying he would get even with Ridenoure.
Shortly after 7 a.m., authorities received a distressing call from Highway W and Highway 17 in the Midvale community that a man was wounded on the east side of Highway W and a motorcycle had been seen earlier where two men fought. According to court documents, Ridenoure told first responders and a passerby that Nugent shot him.
Scattered around the scene were .45-caliber shell casing, two green cloth gloves, a black glove, a damaged black cellular telephone and blood. Ridenoure was pronounced dead at Texas County Memorial Hospital.
Officers with the Texas County Sheriff’s Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol began a search for Nugent, and he was arrested by the patrol with a woman on the way to a friend’s residence in Mountain View.
Nugent is also charged with felonies of armed criminal action and unlawful use of a weapon in the murder case, and faces a felony charge of second-degree assault in a separate case.