A change of venue has been ordered in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a Tipton teenager who was fatally shot in 2016.
Moniteau County Judge Matthew Hamner granted the venue change to Camden County during a hearing Friday after an agreement was made between lawyers representing the plaintiffs, Robert and Cynthia Ashbaugh, as well as the defendants, Travis Clark and Robert Davis Jr., both of California.
In June, Clark, 24, was sentenced to seven years in prison after a Laclede County jury found him guilty of charges in the killing of Robert Ashbaugh, 18, who was a student at Calvary Lutheran High School at the time of the shooting.
Clark was found guilty of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action. The case was moved to Laclede County on a change of venue.
According to the lawsuit, Davis supplied Clark with a Savage .243 rifle the Ashbaughs said was the weapon involved in their son's death.
Clark, the lawsuit alleges, was in possession of the weapon at the apartment in Tipton where he and Robert Ashbaugh were on the night of the shooting. Clark believed the weapon was unloaded, but failed to check it; it was loaded.
The lawsuit alleges Clark pointed the weapon at Ashbaugh, pulled the trigger, accidentally shooting Ashbaugh in the chest. Clark had told authorities he was trying to scare Ashbaugh with the rifle when it went off.
Also stated in the lawsuit, the Ashbaughs claim Clark was incompetent to possess a firearm due to "his propensity for violence, reputation for violence and habitual recklessness." The Ashbaughs also claim Davis should have known these traits of Clark before allowing him to have access to a weapon.
To back their claim, the lawsuit alleges Clark was disciplined at least twice at his then place of work, Cargill, for making threats of violence involving a gun against a coworker. The suit also claims Clark was disciplined at school for violent behavior
The Ashbaughs are seeking more than $75,000 in damages.