Jeffery G. Ward

Gabriel L. Word

The state on Wednesday filed its intent to seek the death penalty in the case against Gabriel L. Word, 21, Jefferson City, accused in the July 4 murder of Jefferson City teenager Jeffery G. Ward.

“We filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty,” said Howard County Prosecuting Attorney Mason Gebhardt. “I carefully consulted with the family and the attorney general’s office.”

Word appeared before Circuit Judge Scott Hayes with his attorney, public defender Robert Flemming, Wednesday morning in the Howard County Courthouse. A motion hearing was set for 9 a.m. Dec. 3.

Earlier this month Word waived his right to a preliminary hearing in front of Associate Circuit Judge Gary Sprick. He also dismissed his attorney, Timothy Richard Cisar of Lake Ozark.

Word is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of Ward, believed to have been killed in rural Howard County on or around July 4. Word is being held without bond in the Cooper County Jail in Boonville.

Badly charred human remains, found around 6 a.m. July 12, are believed to be those of Ward, 19. The body was found near the Petersburg-Lisbon area close to the Missouri River on Highway 87 at a rock pile used by MoDOT.

According to a probable cause statement filed by detective Dennis White of the Howard County Sheriff’s Department, Word shot Ward in an attempt to silence him about an alleged previous arson in Syracuse, Mo.

Reportedly, Word had burned to the ground a trailer there and Ward knew of the crime.

Detectives’ knowledge of the possible motive came from John Wesley Freese, a Howard County resident who provided tips to investigators and was subsequently questioned after being arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants.

Freese told detectives that Word had threatened to kill Ward a few months ago because he feared Ward would talk about the trailer the two allegedly ransacked and torched in Syracuse because the owner owed Word $100.

Freese also said that Word was mad at Ward for losing or pawning a service revolver that he had lent him.

Ward and Word had apparently been acquaintances for approximately seven years and had attended the same church. The two were seen together on the morning of July 4 filling up Ward’s Chevy Camaro at a Jefferson City gas station. Court documents say they then drove to Howard County where around 1 p.m. they met up with Freese and Freese’s friend, Joe Woodruff ,at Freese’s mother’s home at 2537 State Route E just outside Fayette.

Freese and Woodruff both told Howard County deputies that they had never met Ward before, but that they were friends with Word.

According to the probable cause statement, Freese and Woodruff told deputies that Ward and Word went into the backyard to shoot an old pistol that Word had. A short time later, they reported that Word came back into the house and started looking out the window.

Freese and Woodruff told deputies that when they looked out the window they saw Ward’s body lying on the ground and that Word admitted to having shot him. Woodruff says he left the house at that point, but Freese reports he stayed and helped dispose of the body. Woodruff has not been held.
Acting on Freese’s directions, deputies recovered the remains. Freese also helped police locate Ward’s Camaro, which was found near a low water crossing along the Missouri river near Glasgow.

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