State Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to set an execution date for the man responsible for a 2006 double homicide in Callaway County.
Brian Dorsey was sentenced to death by a Boone County jury in 2008 after he pleaded guilty to killing his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, in their home west of New Bloomfield.
Dorsey, a former Jefferson City resident, was convicted of killing the victims with single shotgun blasts to their heads before he raped Sarah Bonnie and poured bleach on her body in an attempt to destroy evidence, the Fulton Sun previously reported. The couple's 4-year-old daughter was in the home at the time but was unharmed. Dorsey stole a number of items, including a car, before fleeing the scene.
The Bonnies had helped Dorsey, then 35, get drug dealers out of his home earlier on the day they were killed.
Family members found the couple's bodies after they didn't show up for a family holiday gathering. Dorsey turned himself in to the Callaway County Sheriff's Office a couple days later, saying he was "the right guy," the newspaper reported.
"As Attorney General, I want to enforce the laws as written, which includes carrying out the lawful sentence that has been upheld by multiple courts, including the nation's highest court," Bailey said in a statement issued Tuesday. "My office is committed to obtaining justice for victims of heinous crimes, and we will use every tool at our disposal to make Missouri the safest state in the nation."
Dorsey's conviction and sentence have been reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Missouri Supreme Court, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri and U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, the attorney general's filing states. None have found legal errors.
Following the attorney general's motion, Dorsey's lawyers are given time to respond. If the Missouri Supreme Court issues an execution warrant, the date will be set between 90 and 120 days from the court's order.
"Dorsey has completed state and federal review, and this Court should set a date for the execution of his sentence," Assistant Attorney General Gregory Goodwin wrote in the filing.