By Jim Seckler, The Daily News
KINGMAN–The murder trial for a young man [raised in the Mountain Communities and now] charged with the death of a Bullhead City neighbor 19 months ago is on track to begin next month.
Richard Carl Shropshire, 22, is charged with second-degree murder in the alleged beating death of Rodney Patrick Barrington on Jan. 25, 2006.
Barrington, 44, was beaten in front of a residence in the 1900 block of Clearwater Drive. He died the next day at a Las Vegas hospital from head injuries.
Shropshire’s attorney, Rick Williams of Bullhead City, said he is ready for the Sept. 24 trial before Superior Court Judge James Chavez. However, there are still questions regarding a recent state law which places more of a burden on prosecutors to disprove self-defense. Chavez set one last hearing for Sept. 10 to deal with that issue.
If Shropshire is convicted of second-degree murder, he faces 10 to 22 years in prison with a presumptive sentence of 16 years.
Shropshire’s brother, Lance Edward Shropshire, 21, (who also attended school in Frazier Park) was also charged with second-degree murder in connection with Barrington’s death. Lance Shropshire pleaded guilty last year to felony rioting. The second-degree murder charge was dismissed. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Bullhead City police officers believe the brothers approached Barrington, who was standing in the front yard of his Clearwater Drive residence. The brothers, reportedly "angry at living in a drug infested neighborhood," say they got into a verbal argument with Barrington.
Lance Shropshire is said to have pushed Barrington and Richard Shropshire allegedly struck him in the head with a large rock, a Bullhead City police report stated.
The parents of Nicholas Covelli have been tracking the Shropshires’ trials. The deputy who shot Covelli in Frazier Park in 2003 testified he feared Covelli’s erratic behavior was "from PCP," but after the autopsy report showed Covelli had no drugs in his system and had numerous fresh injuries unrelated to the deputy’s fatal bullet wounds, the family hired private investigators who concluded that the disorientation may have been the result of an assault before the shooting that left Covelli injured in the mountains without coat, shoes or glasses in the freezing night.
Private Investigator John White alleged in a report given to newspapers, Kern County Sheriff candidates and Sheriff Donny Youngblood that Carl Scott Shropshire, father of Lance and Richard, may have been involved in such an assault. The Covellis have continued to ask for further investigation by authorities, who have rejected the requests.—Ed.
This is part of the August 31, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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