Property owner testified to hours inside vacant home before fatal shooting

Larry R. Lindeman, 76, of West Plains, was inside his vacant property for nearly four hours before fatally shooting a burglar. Lindeman himself testified to the timeline on January 21. In his own words, he arrived at the Paula Dr. property between 3:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. on November 8 and was asking for help to call the police about the shooting shortly after 7:30 p.m.

 

On January 21 during a preliminary hearing, Lindeman was a witness for the prosecution against Keith Geringer, 32, of West Plains, who faces charges of second-degree murder and first-degree burglary. A second-degree murder charge applies if another person dies while the accused was committing a felony. According to court documents, Geringer admits to being the second burglar in the house that day. The first burglar, Hayden Hilleman, 23, of West Plains, passed away from gunshot wounds.

 

This month, Lindeman has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Because he was indicted by a grand jury, the court record in his case contains no narrative of events. Breaking news reports about charges could confirm scanty details: Lindeman had been charged with murder, a fatal shooting occurred, the accused owns the home, and the shooting occurred during a burglary.

 

The consensus of the more than 600 comments on this publication’s initial story is that this is a “Castle Doctrine,” case – a matter of self-defense.

 

In a March 5 interview, Howell County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Rizwan Ahad did not confirm or deny that it is a self-defense case, commenting that it is up to the jury to interpret the facts.

 

Charges can be filed in criminal courts in two ways: (1) via the associate division, where a preliminary hearing confirms probable cause and a case is “bound over” to the circuit division, or (2) via grand jury, where 12 citizens hear sealed evidence and confirm probable cause by returning an indictment.

 

A grand jury did hear evidence and indict Lindeman for first degree murder, but all evidence presented to a grand jury is sealed, whereas probable cause statements are public record. Ahad declined to answer all questions pertaining to any evidence he may have presented to the grand jury.

 

Lindeman’s testimony against Geringer on January 21 was in open court, however, and according to the audio recording of the hearing obtained by Howell County News, it gives a detailed timeline of exactly what took place in the vacant house that November evening.

 

Both Ahad and public defender Thomas Flack questioned Lindeman that day, and via these questions, Lindeman testified that he received information on the afternoon of November 8 that a vacant property he owns had been burglarized. He did not call the police at that point but instead went to the property to take inventory and assess what had been stolen or damaged. He testified he planned to phone police after discovering what was missing.

 

He was inside the house going through boxes from sometime after 3:30 p.m. until the shooting shortly after 7:00 p.m. When he arrived, a door was standing open, and Lindeman testified that he made no attempt to close the door or otherwise secure the residence. Flack asked Lindeman if he had done anything to change the appearance of the house after he arrived. He hadn’t.

 

Most of the time was spent sitting on the hearth of the parlor in the dark, Lindeman testified. Other lights on the ground level were on, just as Lindeman discovered them, including a light on the stairway to the basement. The room where Lindeman stayed was dark. When asked why he was sitting near the ground on the hearth, Lindeman said there were no chairs in the parlor, and he was not always on the hearth, but periodically going through boxes stored in the room to determine if anything had been stolen.

 

The sun set shortly after 5:00 p.m. that day, according to online calculators. When Lindeman heard two male voices in the basement of the house, around 7:00 p.m., he testified that he feared for his life. A loaded shotgun had been stolen from the property, and he did not want to move or make noise because he was afraid the burglars would be armed and charge him. He listened to the burglars discuss what to steal.

 

Lindeman testified he was carrying two pistols and a shotgun. He said he did not call out to the intruders. 

 

As he sat in the dark, Lindeman saw a shadow on the stairs, then a profile. The intruder turned toward the room where he was, about 20 feet away.

 

“I did not know if he was armed or not. I pulled the trigger on the shotgun,” Lindeman testified.

 

“The impact hit him in the back of the head.”

 

After the initial shot, Lindeman said the intruder regained his balance, looked him “right in the eye and lunged” towards him, so he fired a second round.

 

According to the testimony of Detective Aaron Galliher of the West Plains Police Department, Geringer said he was a couple steps behind Hilleman on the stairs. He heard two shots as he fled the residence

Lindeman’s testimony says Hilleman ran back down the stairs after the second shot and that he remained “terrified.”

 

“I didn’t know if his accomplice was waiting for me,” Lindeman testified.

 

Lindeman said he forgot his working phone on the dashboard of his wife’s vehicle. The phone with him all evening was monitoring his blood sugar but had been deactivated.

 

After the shooting, he exited the residence through the still-open door and went several houses down the block to find a phone to alert the police.

 

Flack pressed Lindeman on when exactly he planned to call the police. He didn’t call after first learning of the burglary, or shortly after arriving on the property. Lindeman testified that the first time he tried to call out was at 5:30 p.m., almost two hours after arriving. That’s when he realized he did not have a functioning phone.

 

When Flack asked whether Lindeman left the door open, was quiet in the house, and in the dark because he was hoping someone would come back, the witness denied it, saying, “That’s not giving me the benefit of the doubt, sir.”

 

Lindeman pled not guilty on March 16 before the Honorable Steve Privette. On March 19, Lindeman filed a Motion for a Change of Judge.

 

Geringer’s criminal trial is set to begin on October 21, at the Howell County Courthouse.