Victim's health an issue at murder hearing

The second of two suspects charged with second-degree murder and felony assault in connection with the Sept. 14 death of Northwest Missouri State University student Tomarken Smith appeared in court for a preliminary hearing Monday.

At the end of the proceeding, associate Circuit Judge William S. Richards accepted Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice's assertion that there is probable cause to believe a felony was committed and that defendant, Tony M. Overlin, 23, Bethany, should be tried in Circuit Court, where he will face arraignment at 10 a.m. Monday, Dec. 31.

A number of the witnesses Rice called to the stand during the five-hour hearing testified earlier this month at a similar proceeding for the other suspect, Kevin Dell Mooney, 31, who was also bound over for trial in circuit court.

Mooney is free on bond and has hired Kansas City attorney John O'Connor to serve as defense counsel. Overlin is still being held in the Nodaway County jail and was represented Monday by Public Defender Rick Euler.

As did O'Connor, Euler closely cross-examined Dr. Keith Norton, a pathologist with Southwest Missouri Forensics in Springfield, who performed the autopsy on Smith's body.

The examination revealed irregularities having to do with the victim's heart, blood and spleen, which both defense attorneys have suggested might have contributed to Smith's death.

Rice is alleging that Smith, 21, died after Overlin and Mooney struck him at least twice in the head on a sidewalk outside Molly's, a popular bar and dance club on the west side of the courthouse square.

After the attack, which followed a "shoving match" between Overlin and Smith inside the bar around 1 a.m., witnesses at both hearings said Smith crumpled to the pavement, struck the back of his head and never got up.

The scuffle inside Molly's was broken up by two Maryville police sergeants who happened to be there on "bar patrol." Overlin and Mooney were told to leave the premises, and the assault on Smith, who stayed inside until closing time, occurred about 30 minutes later.

As at the earlier proceeding, Norton said his examination revealed blood clots beneath the skin on the top and at the front of Smith's skull. He explained that the bleeding was consistent with a blow to the back of the head providing that the victim was falling just before impact.

The fall, he said, would have caused the brain to "float" forward.

Death, Norton said, was the result of blunt-force trauma that caused swelling and damage to the cerebellum, a part of the brain that partially controls breathing and heartbeat.

Under Euler's cross-examination, however, Norton stated that Smith suffered several genetic abnormalities that could have increased his chances of heart attack. These included an enlarged heart, enlarged spleen and sickle cell trait, which is characterized by red blood cells assuming a crescent-like, rigid shape than can contribute to arterial blockage.

Smith was also born with a myocardial bridge, a defect in which a coronary artery tunnels through the heart muscle instead of resting on top of it. Norton said this condition can cause irregular heartbeat or even a heart attack.

Though it's possible that internal bleeding, stress or some other factor related to the assault might have caused Smith to go into cardiac arrest, Norton said that was unlikely, since clotting around the skull indicated his heart was still beating after he was struck down.

As during Mooney's hearing, eye-witness testimony by both bystanders and police placed Overlin and Mooney at the scene and also pointed to their participation in the attack on Smith.

Witness Anthony Henggeler said he talked briefly with Overlin outside the bar shortly before the attack, testifying that Overlin told him he had gotten a black eye, which shows up in Overlin's booking photo, during a fight several days before.

Euler asked several witnesses during the hearing if his client had been marked or cut during the altercation inside the bar. All either said no or that they had not noticed.

Officer Michael Stolte, who drove a handcuffed Overlin from the scene in a patrol car, then helped book the suspect at the Nodaway County jail, said Overlin had to be forced into the vehicle and later became belligerent.

At the jail, Overlin allegedly rushed Stolte and a sheriff's deputy and had to be pushed into a cell, the officer said.