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| Timothy Lee Seaman (SCSO) |
Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby has filed first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges against Timothy Lee Seaman, 34, of Crane for the November 2006 death of David Dulin of Hurley.
In 2008, Zackary Lee Stewart of Hurley was tried and convicted of first-degree murder for Dulin's murder in Greene County where the case was moved on a change of venue. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During Stewart's trial a key piece of evidence was questioned by Dulin's family. Selby said a bloody hat recovered at the crime scene belonged to Dulin. Family members approached Selby and told him they had never seen their loved one in possession of the hat.
Selby had DNA analysis expedited on the hat in the middle of Stewart's trial. When the analysis came back it was a bombshell, it connected DNA to three people other than Stewart; Dulin, Stewart's brother-in-law Tim Seaman, and another unknown person.
During closing arguments, Selby argued that the preliminary DNA information from the bloody hat reflected a DNA "hit" to Seaman made by an investigative database. He stressed that it was not a DNA "match" confirmed by comparing it with Seaman's actual DNA.
Seaman's DNA was in the CODIS database because of previous convictions of leaving the scene of an accident and property damage. He pleaded guilty last month in Stone County to charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and his bond was revoked after Stewart's release because Selby believed he was a flight risk.
According to online court records, Seaman has also pleaded guilty to assault, trespass, possession of marijuana, operating a vehicle without a license and not paying child support.
The Missouri Supreme Court reversed Stewart's conviction earlier this year. He was scheduled to be retried for Dulin's murder on February 14, 2011, when Selby announced on December 3rd that he was dismissing those charges saying he'd received "more information" about Dulin's death. "Based on all of the information currently available," Selby said, "I do not believe that it is appropriate to continue Zackary Stewart's current prosecution."
Stewart was released from the Greene County jail the same day into the waiting arms of family, friends and his attorney's, Stacie Bilyeu and Grant Rahmeyer.
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| Stone County Prosecutor Matt Selby |
A little after midnight on November 29, 2006, Dulin called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher that two men in their 20's and 30's had broken into his home and shot him in the head with his own .22 pistol.
As Dulin lay dying in his home at 403 Tin Can Hollow, he told the 9-1-1 operator that he did not know who shot him, but stated that the assailants were from Hurley and that one of the men said he was the "Eby girl's boyfriend."
Seaman was married, but seperated, from Candy Eby-Seaman at the time of Dulins murder.
Another man, Leo Connelly of Crane, also was charged with Dulin's murder at the same time as Stewart. The prosecutor dropped charges against Connelly about a year later. At the time of the murder, Connelly was living with Christy Pethoud, another sister of Stewart's.
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According to the probable cause statement filed with the murder charge against Seaman, "A black semi automatic Walther that belonged to Dulin was missing from Dulin's home."
A gun found during an investigation in Springfield on February 17, 2007 was sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Lab for testing. Shell casings found near Dulin's body matched the gun recovered in Springfield.
On August 20, 2008, Detective Karl Wagner interviewed a man from Hurley who told him, "He had purchased a black .22 with a laser light on it from Timothy in the fall about two years earlier....after David's murder."
Wagner goes on to write, "A person who told me they were in the company of Timothy Seaman on the night of David's murder told me they were party to a conversation with Timothy that night where Timothy discussed robbing someone for money to buy dope. Taking a gun and shooting that person was also discussed before David's murder. Some weeks after David's murder, Timothy told the same person that Timothy disposed of a gun taken from David's home the night David was shot. "
The High Court wrote in their ruling the following:
When asked if Tim had said anything to him about a homicide, Bales, Tim's nephew, responded, “He just told me that he and [John] Mills were at the house where it happened, and that's pretty much it, that they saw it. He didn't mention any other names or anything like that.” Bales testified that Tim did not tell him anything else and he never talked to Tim about the homicide again.
Selby says the investigation into Dulin's murder is ongoing.
Seaman is jailed in Stone County on $1 Million dollars bond his prelimary hearing is scheduled for February.
