KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ David Jungerman stood in the crosshairs of police within hours after attorney Tom Pickert was gunned down in front of his home on Oct. 25.
Police quickly learned that Jungerman had threatened Pickert, a personal injury attorney who won a $5.75 million civil judgment against him for a client, according to court documents. Jungerman was served with paperwork to seize his property the day before the killing.
But after several days of investigation, the case seemed to grow cold. No arrest followed. In November, Kansas City police publicly said Jungerman was not a suspect.
And then last month, police seized key pieces of evidence that ultimately led to the first-degree murder charge Wednesday against Jungerman, an 80-year-old multimillionaire farmer and baby-furniture maker.
Jungerman's attorney, Dan Ross, reached by phone minutes after the charges were announced, said he was still reading through the charging documents and would need to examine the evidence himself.
"Under the law, my client has a presumption of innocence," Ross said. "We will await receipt of discovery from the state and we will evaluate it, including these claimed videos, together with this audio recording" referenced in the probable cause affidavit.
Court documents show the painstaking investigative work that led to charges.
Police gathered hundreds of hours of surveillance video from buses, traffic cameras and businesses to trace Jungerman's steps the day of the killing. They interviewed witnesses who told of Jungerman's temper and violent talk. They scrutinized finances as he came under mounting pressure to pay the judgment against him. And they searched his home, business and vehicles.
By last month, police had uncovered two major pieces of evidence: a .17-caliber bullet similar to the one that killed Pickert and an audio recorder on which Jungerman accidentally taped himself talking about the shooting.
"People, uh, know that I murdered that son of a bitch," he is quoted as saying.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker on Wednesday called a news conference to announce that Jungerman was being charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Pickert had just returned home from walking his two sons to school and was talking on the phone when he heard what he thought was a gunshot.
"Sound like someone just got shot," he told his friend. "Crazy, did you hear that?"
The next shot killed him.
Pickert's wife, Emily Riegel, was inside the house and heard two gunshots. She found her husband fatally injured, with a single gunshot wound to his right temple.
She saw a man in a van on the street pull something black, possibly a ski mask, over his face and drive away. She yelled, "Stop the van!"
She called 911.
Riegel told police about the lawsuit her husband had recently won against Jungerman. The lawsuit concerned one of four men Jungerman acknowledged shooting in 2012.
Widow of slain Brookside attorney speaks openly about her husband's death
As Pickert gathered his belongings in court the day of the verdict, Jungerman approached him in an aggressive manner. Pickert, according to court records, thought Jungerman was going to yell or punch him but instead said, "None of this matters. I have 186 guns. I did it once before. I will do it again. You can't touch me."
On the day of the shooting, Jungerman agreed to meet with detectives at Kansas City police headquarters.
When a detective walked out of the interview room, leaving Jungerman alone, he muttered to himself, "Keep your (expletive) mouth shut."
The interview was cut short when Jungerman asked for an attorney.
A few days after Pickert was killed, a witness told police, Jungerman answered his phone by saying, "Murder Inc., this is David."
In 2010, murder suspect David Jungerman attacked Democrats with an incendiary sign
Detectives established that Jungerman owned a van matching the description of one driven by the shooter. But witnesses said they could not positively identify him.
Police seized the van for evidence but returned it within days of the shooting.
By early November, police said publicly that Jungerman, who had fallen under media scrutiny, was not a suspect.
David Jungerman talks about location of his van on day of Brookside fatal shooting
"Detectives took great care and consideration to seek out all evidence humanly possible to ensure the identity of the suspect," Kansas City police spokesman Capt. Lionel Colon said Wednesday. "Until all leads are exhausted and evidence points to a definitive, identifiable suspect, anything is subject to change. It would have done nothing in maintaining our obligation to the victim and his family or the integrity of the investigation by providing anything before that time."
The homicide squad settled in for a long investigation that would require, among other laborious tasks, tracking down and examining video from traffic cameras, businesses, homes and city buses along the route from Jungerman's Raytown home to Pickert's Brookside neighborhood.
The video showed a van with the same distinctive markings as Jungerman's _ an after-market bug shield, red tape on a brake light _ driving that route an hour before the shooting and returning after.
On the return trip, the video captured the van's driver, who matched Jungerman's general description.
Months passed with no arrests in Pickert's killing.
Then, a break.
On March 8, Jungerman was arrested after allegedly shooting at someone he thought had stolen from him. That day, police got a search warrant for Jungerman's Toyota Sequoia. They found a .17-caliber bullet under the front passenger seat.
The .17-caliber round, an unusual ammunition sometimes used by farmers and ranchers to kill pests, was the same type that killed Pickert.
The next day, police searched Jungerman's Raytown home and his business in Northeast Kansas City.
They seized computers and documents that, among other things, showed Jungerman in possession of assets totaling more than $33 million. Financial records showed Jungerman moving money into new bank accounts and transferring property to his daughter after the verdict Pickert won.
In the master bedroom of Jungerman's home, investigators found an audio recorder on which Jungerman had taped a Nov. 16, 2017, court hearing in an unrelated case.
Investigators listened to the recording and wrote in court documents that it appeared Jungerman had inadvertently left the recording running after the hearing.
The recording captured Jungerman as he left the courthouse and met up with another person with whom he had a conversation about a murder.
Charging documents included a transcript of that conversation with a person whose name is redacted.
Jungerman: Yeah. Hey, you know, uh, people ... people, uh, know that I murdered that son of a bitch.
Redacted: Why are you saying it like that?
Jungerman: Because that's what ... because of what the media done see. And but they ... they ... they just nobody can figure out what's going on you know? (Laughing)
Redacted: Ehhhhh-huh-huh, I hope they don't never figure it out.
Jungerman: Well, you tell me how they ever could?
Redacted: That's what I'm saying, how can they, the (expletive) gone ...
Jungerman: (Laughing) Ehhhhh-huh-huh.
Redacted: (Inaudible)?
Jungerman: You know one thing? It tickles me yeah that ... the bond guy and stuff, it ... it ... it, uh ... uh, they ... and you know the police know too (redacted). Well, you know they might say "good riddance."
Redacted: (Laughing) Ehhhhh-huh-huh-huh-huh.
Jungerman: But, well, you know I keep saying this, we ... we are ... we're gonna just have to stop, uh, saying even the word, you know what I mean?
Redacted: Oh, yeah. (Inaudible)
Jungerman: But you know ...
Redacted: (Inaudible) ... no point.
Jungerman: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Redacted: (Inaudible)
Jungerman: You know, uh, the ... the thing that sort of bothers me about me is, when I think about it, I grin.
Redacted: God damn! (Laughing) Ehhhhh-huh-huh-huh. Nah, I don't even (Inaudible) ...
Jungerman: That (expletive) has caused me a lot of problems, you know. And ... (Inaudible)
Ross, Jungerman's defense attorney, said he didn't see the transcript as an admission of a crime. "I see, until you get the entire investigative file, on the face of this transcript, it is not a confession, clearly," Ross said. "The content of the transcript on the face of it is nonsensical and unintelligible."
Also in March, a witness had a conversation with Jungerman about the shooting, according to police. The witness told investigators that Jungerman "stated he had killed a lawyer with a gun and gotten away with it."
"He did it because the lawyer stole his money."
Jungerman has been jailed since the March 8 shooting. On Wednesday, when Baker filed the first-degree murder charge, she asked that he continue to be held without bond.
Riegel on Wednesday thanked police for their investigative work in the tragic death of her husband.
"We are grieving," she said. "We are desperately trying to find our way forward."
