Joshua Knapp is guilty of murdering Iolan Shawn Cook.
Jurors took over just an hour Thursday to convict Knapp of first-degree murder, concluding the four-day trial in Allen County District Court.
Jurors agreed Knapp teamed up with Iolan Amber Boeken in slitting Cooks throat on a rural country road north of Gas. After realizing the victim was still alive, Boeken and Knapp took Cook to a desolate area of the Neosho River where they repeatedly stabbed him in the neck and left his body in the river.
Knapps conviction marks the conclusion of a 28-month saga that started in the early morning hours of March 13, 2016.
Five defendants originally were charged with murdering Cook: Knapp, Boeken, Rhonda Jackson, Jim Myers and Jessica Epting.
The other four defendants, including Boeken, pleaded guilty to lesser crimes and agreed to testify against Knapp. Boeken pleaded to second-degree murder; Jackson to involuntary manslaughter; Myers to four counts of obstructing justice; and Epting to two counts of interfering with law enforcement.
IN HIS closing argument, Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway noted the evidence throughout pointed to two culprits: Knapp and Boeken.
Who did the stabbing was irrelevant by that point, Hathaway said, after Boeken told jurors Knapp stabbed the victim, while another witness, Brent Cagle, said he saw both Boeken and Knapp stab Cook at the river. (Both Boeken and Cagle told the jury it was Knapp who raced into the river to stab Cook again after they realized he was attempting to swim away.)
Josh Knapp aided Amber Boeken in the murder of Shawn Cook, Hathaway said. Amber Boeken aided Josh Knapp in the murder of Shawn Cook.
Who went into the river when Shawn started swimming? Hathaway asked. Josh Knapp. And he sure didnt go in to save him. Every step this defendant took to get into that river after he saw Shawn Cook swimming constitutes premeditation, step by step.
It was Knapp who borrowed Myerss truck, it was Knapp who drove the truck to Boekens house to pick up Cook and take him to the country. It was Knapp who returned the truck to Myers and helped him wash out the blood. And it was Knapp who burn his soiled clothing afterward to conceal the crime, Hathaway said.
The one common denominator in all this is Josh Knapp, Hathaway declared.
KNAPPS attorney, John Boyd of Ottawa, hammered at the testimony offered by Boeken, Cagle and Jackson, noting all had ulterior motives to lie, and all had been proven as liars by law enforcement during the investigation.
This is a simple case, Boyd said, in that Cook ripped off Rhonda Jackson, and was murdered by her street daughter, Amber Boeken, for that drug debt.
Jackson and Boeken testified earlier that Cook had agreed to sell a batch of painkillers provided by Jackson for $2,000, but failed to return with the drugs or money.
He pointed to text messages between Jackson and Cook in which Jackson threatened Cook the day before he was killed.
