A Jefferson County jury has found Christopher R. Sokolic Jr., 29, of Barnhart guilty of first-degree murder for stabbing and killing a Festus man last year.
The victim, Zachary C. Tripp, 40, was killed May 25, 2020, in Barnhart.
After a two-day trial in front of Jefferson County Div. 1 Circuit Judge Joe Rathert at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Hillsboro, jurors deliberated about an hour and 20 minutes before handing down the guilty verdict on Wednesday afternoon (Dec. 15).
Sokolic, who is being held at the Jefferson County Jail, is scheduled to be sentenced before Rathert on Feb. 8.
First-degree murder is a class A felony that carries a penalty of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorney Travis Partney said the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not pursue the death penalty against Sokolic because the circumstances did not meet the requirements.
“There are certain statutory aggravators that have to apply,” he said. “We reviewed those aggravators and did not feel they fit. Not every murder gets the death penalty. You have to have the statutory aggravators.”
He said examples of statutory aggravators for murder would be “multiple victims at one time” or “if a law enforcement or judicial official is killed.”
The jury of seven women and five men also found Sokolic guilty of armed criminal action, a felony punishable by at least three years in prison.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Sokolic stabbed Tripp 23 times in the head, neck, chest and back with a lock-blade pocketknife, and cut him another nine times with the knife, causing his death.
Partney praised the jury for its work.
“We’re happy with the verdict,” Partney said. “We appreciate the jury’s service. This is a brutal case. We’re happy to have it resolved.”
Sokolic’s attorney, Timothy Fleener, said he could not comment on the case because sentencing and appeal issues are pending.
Throughout the trial, Sokolic sat stoically beside his lawyers, including Fleener, who argued that his client should be found not guilty or, if found guilty, for a lesser charge of second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter instead of first-degree murder.
According to official reports and information released during the trial, on the day of the murder, Sokolic and Tripp were in the front seat of a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze, and Alexandria Ayers of Barnhart was sitting in the back seat. At some point, Sokolic said he needed to retrieve something from the trunk, and Tripp, who was driving, stopped the car behind a barn on the property of Sokolic’s grandfather in the 1500 block of East Marriott Street. Then, Sokolic began stabbing Tripp in front of Ayers, who was able to reach the outside car door handle, open the door and flee for her safety.
Authorities found Tripp’s body a short time later in a field near East Marriott Street.
Ayers, the first witness the prosecution called to testify Tuesday, said she had known Sokolic for several years and they had dated off and on.
She said Sokolic contacted her the morning of the murder asking to see her, and after sending messages back and forth through Facebook, she eventually agreed to meet him.
Ayers testified that she knew Sokolic to be “dramatic,” so when he told her he needed to see her and that he expected to be “on the 6 o’clock news” that night, she did not think it was out of the ordinary.
She said her grandmother dropped her off at a gas station near the Parkton subdivision in Barnhart shortly before noon and Sokolic met her there after he was dropped off by his father. At some point, Sokolic jumped into a nearby creek, telling Ayers he wanted “one last swim,” but gave no further explanation for his action.
After Tripp arrived in the Cruze, he and Sokolic drove off together leaving Ayers behind. However, they returned 20 to 30 minutes later, and she got into the Cruze and they headed to Sokolic’s grandfather’s house, purportedly to cook steaks. Once at the residence, however, Sokolic attacked Tripp.
“I just saw (Sokolic) stab him multiple times, multiple times in the chest; then, when his head dropped, in the back of the neck,” Ayers testified.
She said she ran away, shocked, and upon finally arriving at someone’s house, asked to use the person’s phone and called a friend to pick her up. The friend did so.
In cross examination, Fleener asked Ayers if she knew Sokolic to be a drug user. She said, “Yes.”
Fleener also asked if Ayers’believed Sokolic had used methamphetamines because of the way he was acting that day. She responded, “Yes, I think so.”
On Wednesday, Partney called five other witnesses to the stand – a medical examiner, three law enforcement officers and a woman who encountered Sokolic after the stabbing – and all of them testified to the veracity of the physical evidence presented.
The medical examiner, Dr. Kamal Sabharawal, said Tripp had methamphetamine in his system, but it was not the cause of death. The stabbings were the cause of death, he testified.
Detective Wayne Rice of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Tripp’s body was found outside of and nearby the Cruze and the vehicle was stopped, but running.
The woman who saw Sokolic after the stabbing said he looked disheveled.
The defense called no witnesses, and Sokolic did not testify.
During closing arguments, both Partney and Fleener said that in deciding whether the crime was first-degree murder, second-degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, the jury should focus on whether Sokolic had used “cool reflection” in acting to murder, as opposed to any motive.
Fleener argued that Sokolic acted rashly.
“It’s not first-degree murder,” Fleener said. “You heard (Ayers) say it’s the most sudden thing she’d ever seen.”
He further stated, “There was no plan here, no deliberation.”
Partney countered that Sokolic’s statements prior to the stabbing, including his comment to Ayers he expected to be “on the 6 o’clock news,” indicated he had made at least some kind of plan to attack Tripp.
“The fact that he did this crime poorly doesn’t matter,” Partney said.
He also said that whether Sokolic’s judgment was affected by drugs should not matter in the jury’s decision.
“Are we willing to say, because you’re on methamphetamine, that doesn’t count,” Partney said.