BREAKING: English Guilty on All Counts in First-Degree Murder Trial

UPDATE: A jury has returned guilty verdicts against Christopher English on all counts in the first-degree murder case against him. Closing arguments were held on Friday with the jury taking about five hours to return the guilty verdicts. English’s bond was immediately revoked and he was remanded to stay in custody, pending any appeals for a new trial, until the sentencing date which is set for February 7th.

The first-degree murder trial of an Eldon-area man accused of shooting a Columbia man back in early 2019 continues today (continued on Wednesday) in Laclede County on a change of venue from Miller County. A jury was seated on Tuesday with opening statements presented by the prosecution and the defense in the case against Christopher English. It’s alleged that English was involved in an apparent drug deal before shooting Aaron Brantley whose body was discovered in a wooded area near Brumley. English was also charged with armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse. Two others were also charged in connection to the case…William Lucas and Daniel Cole, both of Kaiser. The original charges against Lucas were dismissed with him, eventually, being sentenced instead to two years in prison on a charge of tampering with physical evidence in a felony prosecution. The case against Cole, on a charge of abandoning a corpse, is currently set for trial in February. Presiding over the English trial is the Honorable Circuit Judge Kenneth Michael Hayden.