Springfield Police say a man was arrested early Thursday morning in connection with a homicide last weekend at a mobile home park.
28-year-old Dustin Stacey faces second-degree murder charges in the killing of 38-year-old Kenneth Clark.
The Springfield News-leader reports a search warrant for the home says Clark’s girlfriend, Stacey Herman, told police three or four men with bandannas over their face had forced their way into the home and at least one of them shot Clark in the chest.
The News-Leader identified Herman as the mother of slain 10-year-old Hailey Owens. Owens has been the inspiration for legislation at the state capitol known as “Hailey’s Law”.
The bill is intended to ensure improvements to the Amber Alert system since Owens’ 2014 abduction and murder remain in place. At the time, there was a two-hour delay before a statewide Amber Alert was issued.
The News-Leader reported that a search warrant for the home says Herman told police the men with bandanas forced their way into the home and at least one of them shot Clark in the chest. Clark did not live at the mobile home, but had been staying there for some time.
The News-Leader reported February 3rd that Herman had called 9-1-1 and told police that the masked men said to Clark something to the effect of “you’re going to pay for what you did earlier today”, and then grabbed a wooden box off the floor after the shooting.
The newspaper also reported a search warrant described what the police recovered from the home – a piece of a glove, cell phones, a shotgun, drug paraphernalia, suspected drugs, ammo, two holsters, a kitchen knife, a bloody towel and DNA swabs of suspected blood.