Business owner accused in lawyer’s 2017 killing asks judge to dismiss criminal charge
An attorney for a millionaire accused in the shooting death of another man is asking a Jackson County judge to dismiss the murder charges against his client, alleging Kansas City homicide investigators intentionally destroyed evidence.
David Jungerman faces first-degree murder and armed criminal action charges in the killing of attorney Tom Pickert, who was found shot to death Oct. 25, 2017 on the front porch of his home in the 200 block of West 66th Terrace — one day after Jungerman was served with property liens to satisfy a $5.75 million civil judgment Pickert had won against him.
Jungerman is scheduled to stand trial in the killing on Dec. 13 before Circuit Court Judge John Torrence.
In court documents filed Monday, defense attorney Dan Ross alleges among the evidence Kansas City police destroyed included 35 or more license plate reads of Jungerman’s van from the day of the shooting and from the days and weeks leading up to the killing.
Ross contended the license plate readers would have shown that Jungerman was elsewhere at the time of the killing. It also would have proved that Jungerman’s van was never detected in the victim’s neighborhood prior to the shooting, Ross claims, undermining the prosecutor’s claim of stalking.
Also destroyed was the original traffic and surveillance video footage and electronic data used by KCPD to create a map that showed the route taken by Jungerman to and from the victim’s home on the day of the homicide, Ross alleged in court filings.
“All of this destroyed information described above was highly exculpatory; it would show alibi, lack of intent, as well as biased police investigation and prosecution,” Ross said.
“Because the evidence has been destroyed or not preserved, the defendant has been denied due process of law and is irretrievably and unduly prejudiced and the indictment should be dismissed,” he said.
Pickert’s killing remained unsolved for months. Kansas City police said at one point that Jungerman, who had fell under media scrutiny, was not a suspect in the shooting.
But investigators later found that Jungerman accidentally recorded himself saying he killed Pickert within weeks of the shooting, prosecutors allege.
During the investigation, police examined hundreds of hours of video from surveillance cameras from at least two businesses. In the video, a van matching the description of Jungerman’s was visible, but not its license plate.
In his court filing, Ross said KCPD detectives did not seek to retrieve surveillance footage from businesses in Raytown, including a QuikTrip, from the day of the homicide. The surveillance did not show Jungerman’s van. The footage was destroyed by private entities in 2017 and is not available to Jungerman’s attorney, according to the court filing.
Ross asked that if the criminal charge is not dismissed, then a video compilation that showed the path that Jungerman drove the day of the homicide as well as witness testimony should be thrown out.
The settlement Pickert won in 2017 stemmed from a lawsuit brought by one of four men Jungerman had shot five years earlier. All were men he encountered at night in a building associated with Jungerman’s business in Kansas City’s northeast neighborhood.
Jungerman, a farmer who ran a successful baby furniture manufacturing company, has claimed he acted in self-defense in that matter. He did not face criminal charges related to those shootings.
Meanwhile, in April 2020, a Jackson County judge approved a confidential settlement for Pickert’s family after they filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming Jungerman’s businesses and trust as defendants. Jungerman objected to that agreement.
Jungerman, 83, has remained in Jackson County jail as he awaits trial in Pickert’s killing.
