The attorney for a woman charged in the 2004 shooting death of her then-boyfriend in Dittmer said he is ready to defend his client if the case returns to court.
Alice Patricia Weiss, 69, of Maryland Heights was charged in 2021 with second-degree murder in the death of James Summers following an investigation by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office Cold Case Unit, according to court records.
On July 24, Jefferson County Div. 4 Circuit Judge Brenda Stacey declared a mistrial in the case due to a deadlocked jury, according to court documents.
“We spoke with the jury afterward, and it appeared to be 11-1 for not guilty,” said Weiss’ attorney, Scott Rosenblum. “Hopefully, the attorney general will take that into consideration as to whether to try the case again. We would feel just as confident getting an acquittal. It is up to the attorney general if they want to try it again or walk away.
“She will be ready to go if they want to take her to trial again, as will I.”
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, according to a written statement from the Attorney General’s Office.
The Attorney General’s Office did not respond to an email from the Leader for further comment.
Rosenblum said he did not know if the Attorney General’s Office will want to try the case again. Court records show a criminal setting hearing is set for Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro.
“I think we will have an indication at that point,” Rosenblum said. “The next thing would be to set up a trial again. I don’t believe that is the best course. There were at least 10 jurors who felt the evidence was completely insufficient to obtain a conviction.”
The probable-cause statement in the case said no other suspect beside Weiss had been identified during the 15-year investigation into Summers’ death.
After Weiss was arrested and charged in August 2021, Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said detectives found new evidence that led to the charges, but said he could not disclose what that evidence was.
On April 27, 2004, Sheriff’s Office deputies were dispatched at about 8 p.m. 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 probable-cause statement said.
A .22-caliber gun was found between the home and Summers’ body, and he 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.
She said Summers was going to pick up his daughter from a gymnastics class, and she was in the shower at the time of the shooting. She also said she heard two “pops” while in the shower and then found Summers shot to death, the report said.
Investigators recreated Weiss’ description of hearing gunshots by placing a recording device in the shower and firing a gun while standing in the driveway. The report said the sound from the gunshot was barely audible and someone would have to know what they were listening for to identify the noise as gunfire.
Also, when deputies told Weiss they wanted to swab her hands for gunshot residue, she twice tried to use the bathroom. After she was told she could not leave until after the swab, she told deputies she had shot the gun found in the driveway earlier that day for the first time in 20 years, the report said.
Neighbors told investigators they heard gunshots coming from the home, but none of them saw any strangers in the area at the time of the shots. The only other person who lived at the home with Summers and Weiss was Weiss’s father, who suffered from dementia, according to the report.
Weiss was wearing a pink bath robe when deputies arrived. The Missouri State Highway Patrol lab examined the robe and discovered gunfire residue on the left sleeve. Weiss told investigators she was not wearing the robe when she had fired the gun earlier on the day of the murder, the report said.
The probable-case statement said one of Weiss’s cousins, who picked her up from the Sheriff’s Office he night of the shooting, told investigators that while driving her home, she said she had “(expletive) up” when she changed her story about firing the gun, the probable-cause statement said.
Weiss told investigators Summers may have encountered a thief who shot him, and she told her cousin that Summers had gone outside after hearing what sounded like an intruder in the garage. When the cousin asked why she would take a shower while her boyfriend was possibly confronting an intruder, Weiss did not provide an explanation, the report 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 when the cousin asked why she shot her boyfriend, Summers compared him to her older brother, whom she hated, the probable-cause statement said.