Execution is set for killer of three, including Missouri deputy

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday set an execution date for the killer of a deputy sheriff and two other people in 2002.

Earl M. Forrest, now 66, was sentenced to death after he was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in Dent County in south-central Missouri. The case was tried in Platte County on a change of venue.

Forrest’s execution, set for May 11, is the first scheduled in Missouri this year.

According to court documents, Forrest got into a dispute with a woman over a business deal for her to buy a lawn mower and mobile home for him. He shot and killed her and a man who was at her residence.

He took $25,000 worth of methamphetamine from her home and returned to his own home, where he got into a shootout that killed Deputy Sheriff Joann Barnes. Forrest and the county sheriff were wounded in the exchange of gunfire.

In Thursday’s execution order, the court noted that all of Forrest’s appeals in state and federal courts have been denied and last October the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Execution is set for killer of three, including Missouri deputy."