Federal Bureau of Prisons Archives

North Missouri businessman receives ten years in federal prison for $142 million grain fraud scheme

August 17, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A prominent northwest Missouri businessman and former school board member will spend the next ten years in federal prison for a $142 million grain fraud scheme, after being sentenced Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Morfitt tells Missourinet that Randy Constant was sentenced on Friday to 122 months in federal prison, which is about ten years. Constant had faced up to 20 years in prison.

Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have called a press conference for Monday morning at 11:30 in Cedar Rapids to discuss the case. The press conference will take place at the federal courthouse.

The 61-year-old Constant is well-known across north Missouri, and is a former Chillicothe School Board member.

Constant pleaded guilty in federal court in Iowa in December to one count of wire fraud. He admits the grain fraud scheme totaled more than $142 million, and that he misled customers into thinking they were buying certified organic grain when it was not organic.

It’s unclear which prison that Constant will serve his sentence at. That decision will be up to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Federal execution date set for 1998 Missouri killing; victim’s body was cut up with chainsaw

July 25, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

A December execution date has been scheduled at the federal level for a man convicted of the killing of a Kansas City teenager more than 21 years ago.

Attorney General William Barr directed the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to schedule William Ira Purkey’s execution, along with four other inmates in unrelated cases.

“Under Administration of both parties, the Department of Justice has sought the death penalty against the worst criminals, including these five murderers, each of whom was convicted by a jury of his peers after a full and fair proceeding,” Barr’s statement reads, in part.

Federal prosecutors say Purkey raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl who was walking home from East High School in 1998.

The “Kansas City Star” reports Jennifer Long was raped, before she tried to escape. The newspaper says Long was stabbed repeatedly and that Purkey used an electric chainsaw to cut her body up. Her remains were burned inside a fireplace and dumped into a septic bond 200 miles away, near Wichita.

Federal prosecutors also say Purkey was convicted in Kansas of killing an elderly woman there. He used a claw hammer to bludgeon the 80-year-old woman to death. Prosecutors say she suffered from polio and walked with a cane.

Purkey is scheduled to be executed on December 13 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in Washington tells Missourinet that Purkey is currently incarcerated in Terre Haute.

He’ll be executed by lethal injection.

The Justice Department says Purkey has exhausted his appeals.