A Battlefield man who pleaded guilty to first-degree involuntary manslaughter for accidentally shooting his friend in 2022 was sentenced to four years in prison on Jan. 31.
Blake Kent Beckelman, 21, admitted to fatally shooting 20-year-old Laterrian Jarman on July 19, 2022 at a home on South Farm Road 223 near Turners, between Springfield and Rogersville.
Beckelman, who had been on house arrest with GPS monitoring as he awaited sentencing, was booked into the Greene County Jail to await transportation to a Missouri Department of Corrections prison.
Greene County Circuit Judge Todd Myers denied Beckelman’s request to serve probation.
The class C felony of involuntary carried a sentence of up to two to 10 years under Missouri law, but the prosecution agreed to cap Beckelman’s sentence at seven years.
According to Greene County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Harrel, Beckelman, Jarman and another witness took a Glock 19, which belonged to Beckelman, outside and each fired a round into a tree line.
Beckelman brought the gun inside the house and believed there were no more bullets in the gun.
At the plea hearing in October 2023, the prosecutor said the other witness would have testified at trial that he overheard Beckelman saying something to Jarman that the witness interpreted as “joking around” before Beckelman discharged the gun, shooting Jarman in the neck.
Beckelman also admitted to drinking three shots of whiskey prior to the shooting. Beckelman called 911 and told the dispatcher he accidentally shot Jarman. Beckelman performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
Jarman later died at a Springfield hospital.
According to his obituary, Jarman graduated from Hillcrest High School and worked as a behavioral specialist for the Arc of the Ozarks.
