Bishop pleads not guilty to murder charge

The gallery in the Vernon County courtroom of Presiding Judge James R. Bickel was silent as accused murderer Mark Bishop was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty on the charge of second degree murder on Tuesday afternoon,

Bishop was originally charged with first degree murder the alleged October 2011 beating death of his wife Mary. The charge was amended to second degree murder on March 1 when Bishop made his last court appearance. Prosecutor Lynn M. Ewing said, "the evidence would not support," a charge of first degree murder.

Bishop was arrested and jailed on a domestic assault charge filed on Oct. 2, after deputies responded to a drug overdose call at Bishop's rural Moundville home on Oct. 1 and found Mary Bishop, the defendant's wife, unresponsive. She was transported to the Nevada Regional Medical Center, then to a Joplin hospital by helicopter.

X-rays the next day revealed that Mary Bishop was bleeding on both sides of her brain, and a doctor told investigators "that based on the X-rays of Mary's head, someone has beat her up," according to court documents. The doctor also said the injury to the chin could have been caused by a ring on someone's finger and it appeared as though "someone had stomped on her chest area."

During the investigation, Bishop denied hitting the victim and told investigators she had been tripped by dogs and she had tripped and fallen off the back steps. The assault charges were raised to first degree murder after Mary Bishop died of her injuries in a Joplin hospital, but amended as noted above.

On Tuesday afternoon, the hallway on the second floor of the Vernon County courthouse held a throng of people waiting well past the scheduled time of 1:30 p.m. to get into the courtroom. The door remained closed. Bishop's previous appearance in the courthouse evoked high emotions from some of Mary Bishop's family members, and there was nearly an altercation in the hall when a shackled Bishop was led to the courtroom and there were also some vulgar comments from people in the gallery prior to the proceeding.

Before anyone was let into the courtroom on Tuesday, chief Vernon County Sheriff's Deputy Shayne Simmons informed all those waiting to enter that the judge would not tolerate any improper behavior. Several deputies were on hand when people were told to form a single-file line while deputies searched women's purses and waived a metal detecting wand over everyone who entered the courtroom.

The courtroom was silent as a case being tried was concluded. A couple of lesser cases were heard by Bickel during which Bishop was led into the courtroom and taken directly to the jury room with one of his public defenders, Brandi McInroy. After a couple more lesser cases were disposed, Bishop was led from the jury room straight to the bench.

Bishop waived the formal reading of the charges and pleaded not guilty to the second degree murder charge. Bickel set a date of April 10 for a pre-trial conference, and Bishop was led from the courtroom. Some of those in the gallery seemed surprised that it was over so quickly. Bishop remains in the Vernon County jail on a $1 million cash only bond.