On the early morning of Saturday, February 15, 1986, Jerry Tapp came home from work to discover the dead body of his 42-year-old wife Betty in the floor of their home on College View Drive in Joplin. She had suffered multiple stab wounds. The couple's Down's Syndrome daughter told her father that "Doc" had committed the crime.
The Tapps had formerly employed a man named Clendell Sanders (aka Sandles) in their janitorial service business, and they knew him as Doc. Acting on this lead and others, police located the 32-year-old Sanders driving near Wichita, Kansas, late Saturday morning, pulled him over, and arrested him. When apprehended, Sanders admitted killing Betty Tapp. He said that when he got off work late Friday night from his job as an aide at Oak Hill Hospital, he drank several alcoholic drinks and then went to the Tapp residence in the wee hours of Saturday morning. He claimed that he and Betty had consensual sex at first but then for some reason unknown even to himself he ended up stabbing her, although he admitted to stabbing her only once. An examination of Betty Tapp's body revealed that she had indeed had sex shortly before her death, but the police felt it was a case of rape, not consensual sex.
Sanders was brought back to Joplin and went on trial there in October 1986. He was convicted of first-degree murder, but the jury could not agree on the punishment. Eleven favored the death penalty, but one held out for life imprisonment. The decision was then put in the hands of the judge, who sentenced Sanders to death.
The defense appealed the case to the Missouri Supreme Court on the grounds that Sanders should have been granted a new trial and various other exceptions. In early 1988, the high court affirmed the lower court's verdict, but Sanders died of a heart attack in prison before his execution could be carried out.
The Tapps had formerly employed a man named Clendell Sanders (aka Sandles) in their janitorial service business, and they knew him as Doc. Acting on this lead and others, police located the 32-year-old Sanders driving near Wichita, Kansas, late Saturday morning, pulled him over, and arrested him. When apprehended, Sanders admitted killing Betty Tapp. He said that when he got off work late Friday night from his job as an aide at Oak Hill Hospital, he drank several alcoholic drinks and then went to the Tapp residence in the wee hours of Saturday morning. He claimed that he and Betty had consensual sex at first but then for some reason unknown even to himself he ended up stabbing her, although he admitted to stabbing her only once. An examination of Betty Tapp's body revealed that she had indeed had sex shortly before her death, but the police felt it was a case of rape, not consensual sex.
Sanders was brought back to Joplin and went on trial there in October 1986. He was convicted of first-degree murder, but the jury could not agree on the punishment. Eleven favored the death penalty, but one held out for life imprisonment. The decision was then put in the hands of the judge, who sentenced Sanders to death.
The defense appealed the case to the Missouri Supreme Court on the grounds that Sanders should have been granted a new trial and various other exceptions. In early 1988, the high court affirmed the lower court's verdict, but Sanders died of a heart attack in prison before his execution could be carried out.
2 comments:
What you wrote about redefining what is history hit a nerve with me! I'm 66 now, but whatever happened during my adult lifetime doesn't seem so long ago. Also I have had to stop working some time ago for health reasons, but I find myself wondering why my contemporaries are taking such early retirement. Oh, right - they are 66 too. Yet, in my head, I am just inching toward my late thirties now.
I found your site by happenstance, but now that I have found it I intend to look at at least some of your articles, although the chances I'l ever have the opportunity to visit Missouri are realistically zero.
Christine Lavoie
Montreal
Glad you found my blog, Christine, even though you have no special interest in Missouri and Ozarks history. Yes, I think one's age definitely influences what he or she considers history. As a kid growing up in the fifties and early sixties, I thought World War II was ancient history, but now, over fifty years later, I realize how relatively recent it was. Ironic but true. By the way, Montreal is a place I've always thought I'd like to visit, but just as you say you'll never likely visit Missouri, I'll probably never get to Montreal either.
Post a Comment