Man won’t have parole chance for nearly 33 years in killing of She’s a Pistol co-owner

One of the four men charged in the killing of a Shawnee gun store co-owner was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

A Johnson County jury in May found 22-year-old Londro E. Patterson III guilty of first-degree murder in the January 2015 fatal shooting of Jon Bieker.

Under the terms of his sentencing Friday, Patterson will have to serve almost 33 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Bieker, who with his wife, Becky Bieker, owned She’s a Pistol gun store, was fatally shot during an exchange of gunfire during an attempted robbery.

Patterson and two of the three other men charged in the robbery were wounded.

Although prosecutors say another man fired the shot that killed Jon Bieker, Patterson and the other defendants were charged with murder because they allegedly participated in the robbery that led to the killing.

Besides the first-degree murder charge, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years, the jury found Patterson guilty of attempted aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and aggravated battery.

Patterson’s lawyers argued that the sentences for those convictions should run concurrently with the life sentence and with each other, making him eligible to seek parole after 25 years.

“He didn’t foresee that the actions of himself and 3 other teenagers would lead to unimaginable loss for everyone and their families,” his lawyers wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

On Friday, defense attorney Vincent Rivera told the judge that just because Patterson is eligible for parole doesn’t mean he will be released.

“All we are asking for today is a chance to stand before the parole board in 25 and ask for the chance to get out,” he said.

Before he was sentenced, Patterson told Becky Bieker and other family members that he hoped someday they would forgive him.

He said he blamed no one else but himself for what happened, and said he would work to make a positive impact on society.

Becky Bieker and other family members asked the judge to impose the maximum possible sentences.

“This man does not deserve to be in our community,” she said. “He deserves and earned every second, every minute of that jail time.”

Assistant District Attorney Vanessa Riebli also asked for the maximum sentences. She noted that a week before Bieker was killed, Patterson allegedly committed another robbery in Raytown in which the victim was shot.

She also said that he was on probation in a felony gun case in Jackson County when he chose to rob She’s a Pistol.

“This defendant deserves no mercy,” she said.

Johnson County District Judge Timothy McCarthy said that he took into account Patterson’s age at the time of the crime and the remorse he expressed Friday, but he was swayed by Patterson’s prior criminal record and the fact that he was on probation when the crime occurred.

McCarthy imposed maximum consecutive sentences totaling seven years and 10 months on the lesser crimes, and ordered that they run consecutively to the life sentence.

Another defendant in the case, 20-year-old Hakeem Malik, pleaded guilty in May to the same charges Patterson was convicted of committing.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 25.

Prosecutors say De’Anthony Wiley, who was left a paraplegic after he was shot by Jon Bieker, fired the shot that killed Bieker.

Attorneys for Wiley, 22, have argued that in the shooting, captured on video, he shot Bieker in self-defense. They maintain that Wiley was wounded on the ground and tried to give up, but that when Bieker continued firing at him, he shot back because he feared for his life.

The defense is asking that he be allowed to argue self-defense in front of a jury. The judge has taken that request under advisement.

Trial for Wiley is scheduled for Oct. 30.

The fourth defendant in the case, Nicquan Midgyett, 22, is scheduled to go to trial in December.

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Man won’t have parole chance for nearly 33 years in killing of She’s a Pistol co-owner."