Tecumseh man who shot sister in the head sentenced to 120-day ITC and probation

Tecumseh resident Samuel Deatherage pleaded guilty pursuant to a plea agreement with the Ozark  County Prosecuting Attorney Feb. 7 to amended charges of assault and discharging a firearm at a person. 

He was sentenced to a 120-day institutional drug treatment program within the Missouri Department of Corrections under Missouri Revised Statute 559.115. If he completes the program successfully, he will be released on supervised probation. He also has a 10-year back-up prison sentence that can be executed by a judge if he violates his probation enough times. He was also ordered to obtain his GED. 

The sentence is to run concurrently with a Howell County case in which Deatherage pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon (exhibiting) Feb. 5. In the Howell County case, Deatherage is alleged to have pulled a firearm on a man in West Plains on July 9, 2023, after an altercation. He reportedly fired one shot in the direction of the man, but the man was not hit with the bullet.

The Ozark County case is in connection with a Aug. 30, 2023, incident in which he reportedly opened fire on a group of family members including three children while in an intoxicated state after drinking nearly a full 750 milliliter bottle of tequila by himself. In the process, he reportedly shot his sister in the head. The bullet entered her head in the forehead region. The woman lived despite the serious injury. 

According to the probable cause statement filed in that case by Ozark County Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Rhoades, the officer responded to a reported shooting in Tecumseh around 8 p.m. Aug. 30. 

The 911 dispatch log from the call indicates that the call came through, the reporting party indicated that Deatherage was intoxicated and belligerent and began shooting at them. While taking the call, the dispatcher heard screams and multiple gunshots sounding in the background, the log indicates. 

The person on the phone indicated that Deatherage’s 19-year-old sister, Anna, had been shot in the head but was still conscious and speaking. The dispatcher spoke briefly with Anna, and the phone was handed off to their mother. She confirmed that Samuel’s father and brother were able to get the suspect onto the ground and subdue him, although he was combative and was attempting to fight them off, the log says.

When Rhoades arrived on scene, he located Samuel, who reportedly told the officer in a “spontaneous statement” that he had accidently shot his sister in the head when he was carrying a gun to his parents and tripped and fell, the report says. 

Rhoades notes in his report that Anna was shot in the top of the forehead, but surprisingly with the bullet wound to the head, she was alert and conscious. 

Rhoades interviewed three victims/witnesses at the scene. “They stated they were just at the house for a short period, and the suspect got angry and grabbed a Draco AK-47 variant pistol and started yelling threats. They all ran outside into the backyard where it was dark, and [where] they could hide. [Anna] hid behind a truck that was parked in the yard. A bullet passed through the rear and front windows of the truck and struck [her] in the head. The witnesses stated they believed that [Samuel] was coming out to kill them all,” the report states. “The suspect fired between 10 to 15 rounds at the victims. There were seven victims in total... only one was struck. Three victims were under the age of 18.”

According to the victims and the suspect, Samuel was heavily intoxicated during the incident. He voluntarily submitted to a breathalyzer test about two and a half hours after the incident, which showed he had a blood alcohol content of .193 percent, the report says. Samuel told the officer that he drank nearly an entire 750 milliliter bottle of 40 percent tequila by himself. 

The Ozark County shooting incident occurred about a month and a half after the Howell County incident.