Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History
Kansas City
November 18, 2014
A Jackson County judge on Friday ordered the last two defendants in the 2010 murder of Kansas City businessman Michael Tutera to each serve five years of probation.
If either man violates terms of his probation, he will have to serve five years in prison.
Jackson County Circuit Court Judge W. Brent Powell also sentenced Michael Dear and Joel Thomas to 200 hours of community service and mandated that both cooperate with prosecutors in any future court actions related to the killing.
Both Dear and Thomas apologized for their roles in the shooting death of Tutera, 49, during a robbery of his home.
“It’s the most regretful thing I have ever done in my life,” Dear said. “I am truly sorry.”
Thomas said he was “terribly ashamed” of his participation and that he was “very sorry for all the pain that I’ve caused.”
Joseph Tutera, the victim’s brother, testified that he felt Dear and Thomas “voluntarily participated” in the shooting’s planning. Their involvement, he said, was “not about being at the wrong place at the wrong time” and therefore “the court should not reward those who participated … with a slap on the wrist.”
The two defendants, Tutera added, “have not paid their debt to society, and they should not be allowed to do so in the comfort of their homes.”
But the defendants’ continued cooperation was an important consideration in his sentences, Powell said during a 40-minute sentencing hearing at the downtown Jackson County Courthouse.
“I see it every day,” he said. “We can’t solve cases because we can’t get cooperation.”
Thomas and Dear, assistant Jackson County prosecutor Michael Hunt said Friday, both had “cooperated fully with the state.”
Police found Michael Tutera’s body inside his home in a gated enclave just south of the Country Club Plaza about 1 a.m. on May 27, 2010. Tutera was a member of a Kansas City family prominent in real estate, development and health care management.
Initially, prosecutors charged Dear and Thomas with second-degree murder. In July, both pleaded guilty to first-degree burglary, and both made statements regarding their roles in exchange for the reduced charges, according to prosecutors.
