A man suspected in the shooting death of another Springfield man Sept. 16 was found dead six nights later.
Springfield police officers found Robert Parmley Jr., 40, dead at his house on North Lyon Avenue near Lafayette Park. Parmley reportedly engaged in a standoff with police, who tried to arrest him on suspicion of shooting Charles Tart, 52, to death on Sept. 16.
Officers reportedly went to a house listed as Parmley’s address in court records at 9:51 p.m. Sept. 22. Parmley was reportedly “making suicidal comments with a gun,” according a press release from the Springfield Police Department.
Parmley reportedly refused to come out of the house when police arrived. Police obtained a search warrant for the house, and entered it later that night. They found Parmley had died “from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
On Sept. 16, the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney's Office filed charges of second degree murder and armed criminal action against Parmley, alleging Parmley shot Tart to death. Tart was found at 10:13 a.m. inside a vehicle in an alley off of North Lyon Avenue in Woodland Heights.
Parmley left the scene in a silver 2006 Ford Expedition. Police officers found the vehicle on Sept. 20, and warned the public that Parmley was considered “armed and dangerous.”
Detectives ask anyone with information about the shooting to call police at 417-864-1810 or to make an anonymous call to Crime Stoppers at 417-869-TIPS (8477).
At the time prosecutors filed charges against Parmley, Greene County Associate Circuit Judge T. Todd Myers ordered Parmley to be held in jail without bond upon his arrest.
Court records show Parmley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon and misdemeanor charges of third-degree domestic assault and third-degree elder abuse in Christian County in 2017. The records show Parmley spent 232 days in jail as his case went through the court system, and that he was sentenced to four years in prison on the unlawful use of a weapon conviction.
