By: Valerie Schremp
(reprinted from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), May 4, 2004)
St. Charles County resident Richard Pearia admitted Monday that he had shot and killed a man who he said had been stalking his family.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors asked for a sentence of no more than five years in prison.
Pearia was charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Donald Brinkmeyer, 51, of Shrewsbury, in October near New Melle. On Monday in St. Charles County Circuit Court, Pearia, 52, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, admitting he had recklessly caused Brinkmeyer's death.
As part of the deal, a charge of hindering prosecution that had been filed against Pearia's wife was dropped. His wife, Kerstin Pearia, 43, told police that her husband had her get an ice pick, which he had put next to the body, to try to show that the man had been armed.
"They're very ordinary people put in an extraordinary position," said the Pearia's attorney, Joel Schwartz, after the plea hearing. "It escalated to something we believe the victim brought on himself."
Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors said that they opposed probation and asked that the judge cap his sentence at five years. Pearia will be sentenced on July 12.
The Pearias live outside New Melle, in the 200 block of Stealey Road. Brinkmeyer was angry because he believed that Richard Pearia was having an affair with his ex-girlfriend. The Pearias told police that the woman was Richard Pearia's cousin, and that there was no affair.
About two weeks before the killing, Brinkmeyer had seen Richard Pearia and the woman together at a Denny's restaurant in Ballwin. He wrote down Pearia's license plate number and had a private investigator look up his address, Schwartz said. But the investigator gave him the address of a different man named Richard Pearia, and Brinkmeyer began sending that man threatening letters. That Richard Pearia turned the letters over to police.
In an order of protection request filed Sept. 29 against Brinkmeyer, Kerstin Pearia wrote: "He has made recent statements that everyone is going to be as unhappy as he is."
On the night of Oct. 7, Brinkmeyer came to the couple's home. Investigators said Kerstin Pearia had called police from her car, calmly saying that a man who was wanted by police was there and that she was blocking his car in the driveway with hers. On the 911 tape, screaming can be heard in the background. The dispatcher asks what it is; Pearia mentions to the dispatcher that her husband is coming, and then she hangs up the phone.
The Pearias didn't call police again to say the man had been killed; and deputies, not knowing what had happened, did not arrive at the home until about 20 minutes later.
In court on Monday, Richard Pearia admitted that he had shot Brinkmeyer once and that Brinkmeyer had fallen down and gotten back up. It was at that point that he believed Brinkmeyer had a weapon, he said, and he shot him three more times.
Pearia admitted that his behavior had been reckless and that Brinkmeyer had not had a weapon.
St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Banas says that he believed Pearia's anger took over his reasoning. But by asking that Pearia serve prison time, Banas wants to send the message that it's not OK to shoot people with whom you have a problem.
"It really teetered on if it was actually voluntary (manslaughter) rather than involuntary," he said.
