Separate trials ordered for four defendants in She’s A Pistol killing

Four men charged in the 2015 killing of a Shawnee gun store co-owner will be tried separately.

A Johnson County judge on Thursday granted a motion from two of the defendants, Londro Patterson and De’Anthony Wiley, seeking separate trials. Prosecutors had sought to have them tried together.

Prosecutors did not object to separate trials for the other two defendants, Hakeem Malik and Nicquan Midgyettt.

The four men are charged with first-degree murder in the January 2015 shooting death of Jon Bieker.

Bieker was fatally shot during an attempted robbery at She’s A Pistol, the gun store he co-owned with his wife, Becky Bieker.

Three of the four alleged robbers were wounded.

In addition to the murder charges, Malik, 20, and Patterson, Wiley and Midgyett, all 21, are charged with attempted aggravated robbery, conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and aggravated battery.

All four are scheduled to be back in court Dec. 16, and trial dates could be set at that time.

This story was originally published October 13, 2016 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Separate trials ordered for four defendants in She’s A Pistol killing."