Who is Richard Darren Emery? Missouri man who shot dead GF, her mom and 2 children gets death penalty
ST CHARLES, MISSOURI: Richard Darren Emery, who got convicted of killing his girlfriend, her two children and her mother in 2018 and was charged with four counts of first-degree murder, has been sentenced to death by a jury on Tuesday, October 4.
According to St Louis Post-Dispatch, a jury, who found Emery guilty on September 30 in St Charles quadruple murder of his girlfriend, Kate Kasten, 39, her two children from a previous relationship, 10-year-old Jonathan and 8-year-old Zoe; and Kasten’s mother Jane Moeckel, 61, deliberated for over two hours on October 4 before passing their verdict. Following the sentencing, St Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar said, as quoted by KMOV, “It was a clear disregard for human life. It was vile. The crime scene, it spoke for itself. To commit these murders within a matter of moments but we can clearly establish that there was plenty of time for cool reflection between each pull of that trigger. For me, those are the things that stood out to us and I think ultimately to the jury as well.” He further said the formal sentence will be handed down by the judge which will take place on November 3, reports KSDK.
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What happened in 2018?
Emery got convicted of shooting his girlfriend and her family at close range on December 28, 2018, after a night of poker and drinking. As previously reported, Emery returned home and got into an argument with his girlfriend Kasten. During the argument, Emery took a handgun and fired nine shots in all. His girlfriend was the first person to be shot. Kasten’s mother barricaded herself and two grandchildren in another room. However, Emery broke the door and shot her while she was on the phone with 911 dispatchers. She provided the home address to dispatchers before being shot and killed. Following which, the two children, Jonathan and Zoe, were the final victims to be killed, states Fox 4. After killing the family, Emery left the house with an AR-15 and more than 900 rounds of ammunition. He claimed that while he was in the truck, he was ready to take his life. But instead, he got out of the truck and started shooting at the police, who eventually arrested him.
Who is Richard Darren Emery?
Describing Emery, who was a truck driver, and his relationship with Kasten, whom he met at a concert after her husband Kory died following a long struggle with cancer. Talking about his actions, Emery, a bisexual and whose attorneys argued that he had a mental illness said in court on October 4, "I'm the one that apparently is sick. I don't know. They didn't deserve me. I most definitely didn't deserve them. They were the best thing that ever happened to me and as usual, I screwed it up," according to Daily Mail.
Kasten's father, Rick Moeckel, told to NBC in 2019, "She had been dating him for a year, a year and a half. I thought I knew him well. [But] the booking picture shows a Darren Emery that I did not know. I looked at that picture and it just looks like there’s no soul there. That’s not him. You just can't fathom or understand what the heck went wrong in his brain that caused this."
Rick also said that Emery filled a need that helped his daughter get through things, "and there was never any indication that something like this could happen." He said, "He was maybe a little high-strung, but he never raised his voice. I never saw him get mad." On the other hand, Elora Jo Roe, Emery's mother and one of the individuals who took the stand on October 3 to make the case for why he should live, said, "To this day I can’t believe it. It’s so far from my son,” reports St Louis Post-Dispatch.