Sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon for a Columbia barber who was convicted of five felonies for the shooting deaths of two women in 2022.
A Boone County jury deliberated for several hours in September, before convicting 37-year-old Cadilac Derrick of first degree involuntary manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter, domestic assault and two counts of armed criminal action. Derrick had been charged with two counts of first degree murder for the deaths, so the convictions mean he will be eligible for parole at some point.
Derrick, who also has ties to mid-Missouri’s Marshall, was charged for the November 2022 deaths of 22-year-old Lea’johna Sanders and 53-year-old Laura Myers. 939 the Eagle News was at the Boone County Courthouse for all three days of the September trial, and there was tight security in the courtroom. Derrick took the witness stand during the trial and testified that Sanders, his girlfriend, had previously threatened to kill him, had stabbed him once with a “sharp object” and had tried to run him over with her vehicle.
However, Boone County assistant prosecutor Risa Perkins grilled Derrick during cross-examination, and Prosecutor Perkins told the jury in opening statements that Derrick had repeatedly threatened to kill Lea’johna Sanders.
Defense attorney Joseph Whitener told the jury that both Sanders and Myers were intoxicated that night, and that this is not and never was a murder case. Counselor Whitener wanted the jury to acquit his client, telling the jury that at best this was a voluntary or involuntary manslaughter case. Whitener has filed a motion for a new trial. Boone County Circuit Judge Brouck Jacobs has scheduled sentencing for 2:30 this afternoon.
