A St. Louis man charged last year for the 1993 killing of an Arnold liquor store owner died Thursday (June 17, Sheriff Dave Marshak announced on Twitter.
Loril William Harp, 69, of St. Louis died in an area hospital while in the custody of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Marshak said.
He said Harp had spent the last couple of weeks in a hospital and that “this was an anticipated death.”
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Grant Bissell said Harp was transferred from the Jefferson County Jail to the hospital on June 3.
Harp was in poor health when he was taken into custody by Arnold Police after spending the nine months before his arrest in the Riverview Care Center nursing home in St. Louis, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
On Sept. 16, 2020, Harp allegedly confessed to killing Steven Weltig on April 23, 1993, at what used to be the Ajax Liquor store, 1409 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold, while Arnold Police detectives Brett Ackermann and Josh Wineinger interviewed him at the retirement community, according to the probable-cause statement in the case.
The Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Harp with first-degree murder, a class A felony, and armed criminal action, an unclassified felony, on Sept. 29, 2020, and he was arrested Sept. 30, 2020, by Arnold Police.
“I’m just glad we could close the case before he passed and put the family at ease,” Arnold Police Chief Bob Shockey said. “They finally knew who did it after all of these years.”
Weltig was 40 when he was shot and killed in the liquor store.
Shockey said 15 detectives from his department worked on the case over a 27-year period, and members of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis and cold-case investigators from England also have reviewed the case.
Harp told the detectives he went to Ajax Liquor to confront Weltig because he believed Weltig had shot one of his friends in 1993 on Avenue H in south St. Louis County, and because Weltig was in a dispute with a woman with whom Harp was friends, the probable-cause statement said.
Harp told detectives Weltig had “ripped a lot of people off back then,” referring to drug transactions, and he said he wanted to get “payback” on Weltig, according to the report.
Harp said his former wife drove him to the liquor store at about 10:15 a.m. the day of the murder. He said he was going to “rough up” Weltig, the report said.
Harp said he began to argue with Weltig in the store, and Weltig pulled a handgun from near the cash register and pointed it at him.
Harp also told detectives Weltig was “trying to kill me,” according to the report.
Harp said he started to wrestle with Weltig, and he eventually grabbed the store owner’s hand and slammed it down to get him to release the gun. He told detectives the gun “went off” during the struggle, and that was how Weltig was shot, the report said.
After that, Harp said he left the store.
The building that housed the liquor store is now a resale shop, and before that it housed an auto dealership.
Wineinger wrote in the probable-cause statement that crime scene photographs and the medical examiner’s report indicate the shooting was not accidental. Weltig was near the floor, possibly kneeling, when he was shot from above, the report said.
Officers in 1993 tracked Weltig’s activities on the day of the murder.
He lived in Oakville and crossed the river to Illinois to purchase liquor for the store that morning. Once in Arnold, he stopped by what was a UMB Bank across the street from his business and then opened his store. A man and a woman told police they stopped by the store that morning to buy cigarettes and found Weltig shot in the head.
In 2015, Harp’s former wife told Arnold Police that Harp had told her he had shot Weltig, the probable-cause statement said.
She also said she did not drive her former husband to the liquor store the day of the murder. She said she was at home when Harp came in and immediately went to take a shower and later told her he had just shot a man in an Arnold liquor store, the probable-cause statement said.
One of Harp’s friends, who said he was friends and had worked with Weltig, also told Arnold Police that Harp told him that he had shot Weltig, the report said.
Detectives interviewed Harp in 2015, but they were unable to gather enough evidence to seek charges for the murder, Shockey said.
The friend and ex-wife were interviewed again in August 2020 and September 2020, and they still said Harp shot and killed Weltig.
Harp was interviewed on Aug. 27, 2020, and he again denied having any involvement in Weltig’s murder. But on Sept. 16, 2020, he allegedly confessed to his actions that led to Weltig’s death, the probable-cause statement said.
Harp told detectives that in the 1980s and 1990s, he was muscular and people hired him to “collect or enforce.” He said he had collected payment from others by physically assaulting them, shooting at them, pistol-whipping them and hitting them with a hammer, the report said.
The probable-cause statement said Harp’s criminal history includes arrests for unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree kidnapping, tampering, illegal drugs, burglary, stealing, assault and traffic violations.
Harp had been convicted of at least five felonies, according to court records
In December 1984, he pleaded guilty in St. Louis County to a felony weapons charge and was sentenced to five years in prison. However, the sentence was suspended, and he was placed on five years’ probation, court documents said.
In December 1991, Harp entered Alford pleas to charges for second-degree burglary, felony stealing and felony drug possession in St. Louis County. By entering Alford pleas, Harp did not admit guilt but agreed there was sufficient evidence to find him guilty of the offenses.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for each charge, and the sentences were served concurrently, or at the same time, court records show.
In August 1997, Harp pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge after a 1996 arrest in Jefferson County. He was sentenced to three years in prison, according to court records.