Opinion ID: 1215322
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Capital Crimes Murders of the Junghanses

Text: In 1978, Reiner Junghans and Joseph Penka, both of whom owned stock in a corporation, had a falling out. Penka, frustrated by his attempts to wrest control of the corporation from Junghans, told two former employees that Junghans is going to get his one way or the other. The two former employees, Raymond Smith and Donald Davis, later contacted Penka and arranged with him to kill Junghans for a price. Smith and Davis eventually contacted Ronnie Westmoreland, defendant's brother-in-law, who in turn agreed to arrange for defendant to do the killing. The bodies of Reiner and Sigrid Junghans were found October 16; evidence suggested that they had been murdered the night of October 14. Baling wire was found on or near the two bodies, a rubber ball was in Sigrid's mouth and another was found near Reiner's body. Both had suffered repeated stabs with a weapon similar to an ice pick; Reiner had died from the stab wounds, whereas Sigrid died from a combination of the stab wounds and suffocation caused by the rubber ball. A note with defendant's fingerprint on it was discovered near the bodies, and a shotgun with the fingerprint of one Kenneth Davis was found in the Junghanses' house. Smith, Donald Davis, Westmoreland and Lorrie Ross (defendant's girlfriend) testified that before the Junghanses' murders, defendant: obtained some baling wire and cut some of it with clippers later identified as his; acquired a gun from Donald Davis, who had in turn bought it from his brother, Kenneth Davis; was driven past the Junghanses' house by Westmoreland; and, with Westmoreland, purchased an ice pick and two rubber balls. On October 14, 1978, defendant telephoned Westmoreland and told him the murders were completed. [2] Thereafter, Penka gave $5,000 in $20 bills to Donald Davis. Davis delivered the money to Westmoreland, who in turn paid $4,000 of it to defendant. Defendant, who had been so short of cash the day before the murders that he had pawned a tool for $30, in the days after the murders repaid some debts and otherwise spent several thousand dollars in cash, all in $20 bills.