Billy Barger arraigned Monday
Nevada Daily Mail
Monday morning saw William "Billy" J. Barger arraigned in Vernon County Circuit Court on four counts of burglary in the first degree, a class B felony, as well as four counts of armed criminal action, an unclassified felony. The four counts on each charge were filed in alternative, meaning each is essentially the same charge but formulated slightly differently in order to give the state some options in prosecution of the counts.
The charges claimed that Barger "acted in concert" with Andrew Wadel and Lonnie Swarnes of Rich Hill and Douglas Stangeland of Nevada to perpetrate the home invasion of Charles and Linda Scammell of Richards, Mo.
As noted in the probable cause sheet, Scammell was questioned "about his knowledge of anyone by the name of Muller. Scammell did tell them that he had had some business dealing with a Jeffrey Muller about 10 years ago, and the last he knew, Muller lived in New Jersey."
The three perpetrators wore ski masks and preceded their questioning of Scammel by shooting him in the hand, resulting in the loss of three fingers on Scammell's right hand. After questioning, the Scammells were tied to chairs using zip ties.
The case went unsolved until early January 2010, when the kidnapping of the wrong Muller went sour. Wadel, Swarnes and Stangeland had gone to New Jersey to get Muller but kidnapped the wrong Jeffrey Muller and as they were driving him back to Missouri, their vehicle broke down in Lake Ozark. That gave Muller a chance to escape and alert a convenience store attendant, who called the police.
All three men ended up in the Miller County jail, and the investigation really began. During an FBI interview, Swarnes claimed that he, Stangeland and Wadel perpetrated the Scammell home invasion and that they kidnapped Muller on orders from William Barger, of Nevada, to return Muller to Missouri.
Barger's involvement goes back to a man named Roy Slates. One night, Slates, a former Nevada building contractor, was drinking and bemoaning the loss of $500,000 in a Utah construction deal years before, in which one Jeffrey Muller reportedly defaulted on a loan. Douglas Stangeland listened to the story and later told it to Barger. Prosecutors say the men were promised a significant percentage of any funds they recouped.
Slates pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court to conspiracy to commit theft by extortion, a second-degree crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Slates will not be sentenced until the other cases are resolved.
On Nov. 15, 2011, Slates was given a suspended sentence of five years of court-supervised probation in Vernon County. Slates pleaded guilty to the felonies of concealing a felony and hindering prosecution.
On hand at the arraignment were the defendant, his attorney, Nathaniel Anderson of Harrisonville, and Assistant Missouri Attorneys General Joshua Harrel and Danett Padgett. Harrel and Padgett represented the special prosecutor for this case, Chris Koster, Attorney General of Missouri.
In New Jersey, Barger has already been convicted on federal charges related to the January 2010 interstate kidnapping of Jeffrey Muller.
Barger received a sentence of 12 years with federal guidelines mandating at least 80 percent of the sentence being served which means Barger will be imprisoned for at least 10 years.
If convicted on the Vernon County charges, Barger would likely serve his time concurrently with his federal sentence.
After the hearing, Anderson said, "My client says the warden received some sort of notice that I've not seen yet. Apparently, it has to do with discussions about whether my client would serve his time in New Jersey or Missouri. But first let's see what happens between now and the end of the month."
In court, Judge James Bickel set August 30 for the next hearing, by which time either a possible plea arrangement will be finalized and presented to the court for review or a trial date will be set.
Also present in the courtroom were Charles and Linda Scammell. "After these charges are resolved there are some things I want to say publicly, but not till then," said Charles Scammel.
His wife Linda added, "What happened on that November night was horrific but that it's been almost seven years to get our day in court has only dragged out our pain and delayed our healing."