Hosier trial underway

By Bob Watson

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After a couple of false starts, because there weren't enough jurors available in two Kansas City area counties, David Hosier's double-murder trial began this morning.

Hosier, now 58, is charged with the Sept. 28, 2009, murders of Angela Gilpin, 45, and her husband, Rodney Gilpin, 61, at her apartment in the 1100 block of West High Street.

Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson told a jury of 11 men and four women from St. Charles County that the state's evidence would show clearly that Hosier murdered the couple because he was upset that Angie was leaving Hosier and reconciling with her husband.

Richardson said both victims had been shot several times, and that Highway Patrol Crime lab tests show shell casings found at the murder scene came from a weapon found in Hosier's car after he was arrested in Oklahoma, about six hours after the early morning murders.

But Public Defender Donald Catlett told the jury that "no credible physical evidence" connects Hosier with the killings.

Although acknowledging that Hosier was unhappy that Angie Gilpin was ending her relationship with Hosier to reconcile with her estranged husband, Catlett told jurors that everything they will hear this week about the murders "is theories, conjecture and assumption."

The trial is scheduled to run through next week, although attorneys indicate it likely won't take that long.

If the jury convicts on either of the murder charges, Richardson is seeking the death penalty as punishment.

Hosier also faces charged of armed criminal action, burglary and being a felon in possession of weapons.