Days before he was set to have a jury trial, the Springfield man accused of shooting Christopher Kuder to death in 2021 entered into a plea agreement on Feb. 23.
Mickal Johnson, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm charges. As part of the plea agreement, Greene County prosecutors dropped a count of armed criminal action.
Second-degree murder is a class A felony that carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison under Missouri law. Unlawful possession of a firearm is a class D felony punishable with up to seven years in prison.
Johnson will be sentenced in May in Greene County Circuit Judge Kaiti Greenwade’s courtroom. Johnson's case had been scheduled for a jury trial to begin Feb. 26.
Kuder, 41, was shot in the chest in the early morning hours of June 9, 2021, in the roadway on the 1400 block of East Atlantic Street. He was pronounced dead soon after the shooting at a Springfield hospital.
Kuder’s family spoke to the Hauxeda following a hearing on Feb. 7, at which time Johnson and his attorney asked the court to delay a trial.
Kuder’s uncle, Michael Rogers, expressed frustration with Johnson’s request for a continuance.
“Three years is too long,” Rogers said after the hearing. “(Johnson) just doesn’t want to go to prison. It’s time to pay the piper.”
At that hearing, Greene County Senior Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Bergeon “strongly objected” to Hayes’ request, saying Johnson had already been given an opportunity to review evidence. Bergeon described the case as “fairly straightforward” and said it should not be delayed anymore.
What led to the fatal shooting?
According to the probable cause statement, Springfield police officers were called to the scene in northwest Springfield’s Robberson neighborhood around 2 a.m. June 9, 2021, in reference to a man in the street with a gunshot wound. Officers found Kuder with a gunshot wound to his upper chest. Medics transported Kuder to a Springfield hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police found Johnson standing on the front porch of a nearby home shortly after the shooting.
According to the probable cause statement, witnesses told police that Johnson shot Kuder during an argument. One witness told police Kuder arrived at the scene while Johnson was already arguing with two women. According to that witness, Kuder walked over and put himself between Johnson and one of the women. The witness then heard a “pop” and saw Kuder fall to the ground.
In a post-Miranda interview at a Springfield police station, Johnson allegedly admitted to shooting Kuder and told the officer who wrote the probable cause statement he felt threatened for his life, because Kuder “ran up on me and he got popped.”
Johnson suggested to the officer that he thought Kuder had a knife. But when asked if he actually saw a knife, Johnson answered, “you could tell he had something on him.”
Following Johnson’s hearing on Feb. 7, Kuder’s family said it would have been impossible for Kuder to “run up” on Johnson or to threaten Johnson.
Kuder had a pacemaker, a defibrillator and relied on a cane to walk, explained Evelyn Kuder, his mom.
“As far as my son — he couldn’t have hurt a fly if he had to,” she said.
Charged with assaulting another inmate
According to online court documents, Johnson is facing a new charge of third-degree assault for an incident that happened on Oct. 1, 2021, in the Greene County Jail.
According to a probable cause statement from Greene County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson can be seen in jail security footage striking another inmate in the head and face three times during an evening meal. The other inmate fell to the floor and Johnson returned to his jail cell.
