A Jefferson County jury has found a woman guilty of shooting and killing her then-boyfriend at a Dittmer home in 2004, according to court documents.
Alice Patricia Weiss, 70, of Columbia on Sept. 11 was found guilty of second-degree murder for the death of James Summers following an investigation by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office Cold Case Unit. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 6, court papers show.
The Attorney General’s Office is requesting Weiss to be sentenced to 22 years in prison, court documents said.
However, court records show Weiss’ lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, on Sept. 14 filed a request for an additional 10 days to request a new trial.
This was the second time in the last two years Weiss has been tried for killing Summers. In July 2025, Jefferson County Div. 4 Circuit Judge Brenda Stacey declared a mistrial in the case due to a deadlocked jury, according to court documents.
“A guilty verdict delivers long overdue justice for the family of James Summers and accountability for a crime that went unanswered for far too long,” state Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said in a statement on Sept. 14 announcing the jury’s decision. “I am deeply proud of the work of our Cold Case team. Missouri families deserve justice and closure, and our office will never stop fighting for them.”
The shooting death was assigned to the cold-case unit, which was established in December 2020 by then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Members of the unit and investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office worked on the case.
The case’s probable-cause statement said no other suspect beside Weiss had been identified during the investigation into Summers’ death.
After Weiss was arrested and charged in August 2021, Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said new evidence was found by the department’s detectives that led to the charges.
“This case shows the importance of never giving up,” Marshak said in a statement released by the Attorney General’s Office. “We appreciate the Attorney General’s Office for revisiting this investigation and working closely with our deputies to ensure James Summers finally receives justice.”
Sheriff’s Office deputies had been dispatched at about 8 p.m. April 27, 2004, to a home in the 6600 block of Shenandoah Lane in Dittmer following a report of someone being shot. When deputies arrived, they found Summers’ body slumped against a detached garage, the case’s probable-cause statement said.
A .22-caliber gun was found between the home and the body of Summers, who had been shot in the back and face. There were no signs of a struggle, the report said.
Weiss, who lived with Summers and identified him as her boyfriend, was standing outside the home when deputies arrived. She initially told the deputies the gun in the driveway belonged to her, and that it had been stored unloaded in a bedroom closet, according to the report.
Neighbors told investigators they heard gunshots coming from the home, but none of them saw anyone who did not live in the area at the time of the shots. The only other person who lived at the home with Summers and Weiss was Weiss’ father who suffered from dementia, according to the probable-cause statement.
Weiss later told deputies she fired the gun found in the driveway earlier that day for the first time in 20 years, the report said.
Weiss was wearing a pink bath robe when deputies arrived. The Missouri State Highway Patrol lab examined the robe and discovered gunfire residue on its left sleeve. Weiss told investigators she was not wearing the robe when she had fired the gun earlier on the day of the murder, according to the report.
The probable-cause statement said a cousin of Weiss, who had picked her up the night of the shooting from the Sheriff’s Office, told investigators that while driving her home that night, she said she had “(expletive) up” when she changed her story about firing the gun, the probable-cause statement said.
In 2008, the cousin spoke with investigators again and told them Weiss allegedly told him she wanted to know what killing someone felt like. She also allegedly told her cousin that if she were charged with Summers’ murder, she would say her father killed him because her dad had died.
Weiss also allegedly told her cousin there was “little difference between love and hate” and compared Summers with her older brother, whom she hated, when the cousin asked why she shot her boyfriend, the probable-cause statement said.
As of Tuesday, Weiss was being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro, jail records show.