Prosecutors wrapped up their case Wednesday in the trial of Joshua Knapp, accused of the March 2016 murder of Iolan Shawn Cook.
Several witnesses took the stand in day three of the weeklong trial, including former co-defendants James Myers and Rhonda Jackson, who previously had been charged with murder, but agreed to testify against Knapp as part of their respective plea deals.
Knapp is accused of slashing Cook’s throat along an Allen County road north of Gas sometime either late March 12 or early March 13, 2016, then after realizing Cook wasn’t dead, taking him to a desolate stretch of the Neosho River near Le Roy, and stabbing him repeatedly in the neck.
Cook’s disappearance sparked a countywide manhunt until his body was discovered more than two weeks later.
The killing, prosecutors contend, was in response to a failed drug deal.
Jackson testified she supplied Cook with 100 Dilaudin pills, which Cook was supposed to sell for $20 apiece, but failed to return with any money or drugs.
Jackson admitted sending Cook threatening text messages after he brazenly responded to her subsequent inquiries.
“You’ll f—-ing regret this you sorry punk b—h,” Jackson wrote.
Sorry, youre s–t out of luck. Take it as a lose (sic), K, Cook reportedly responded.
Jackson explained the text was meant as a threat to sullying Cook’s name to other drug dealers. She said she then contacted Amber Boeken, a close friend who also knew Cook, who “said she would see what she could do.”
Jackson said she next saw Cook the night of March 12, when Knapp and Boeken arrived at her house with a bloodied Cook in the back of a pickup owned by Myers.
Jackson said she saw Boeken assist Cook from Myers’ truck to another pickup. She then gave Boeken and Knapp rough directions to Neosho Falls.
Jackson said she next heard from Knapp and Boeken hours later, returning in the second truck, both in need of new clothing because their clothes were wet and bloodied. She gave them some clothes to wear, then followed the pair as they returned Myers truck, and then gave Boeken and another acquaintance of Myers, Maisy Hale, a ride back to Boekens home in southeast Iola.
(Boeken testified Tuesday about her role in the murder. Like Jackson and Myers, Boeken also faced a first-degree murder charge before reaching a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for her testimony against Knapp.)
MYERS, meanwhile, told jurors how he first loaned his pickup, as well as a sheet of plastic, to Knapp under the pretense that Knapps vehicle had broken down, and he was in need of assistance.
