Woman found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity is now being considered for conditional release

An Ozark County woman who has been in the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health for five years, after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the stabbing death of former Theodosia resident Fred Wiggins, could potentially be released in the near future. 

The Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center in Farmington has recently filed an application to release Angela K. Plemmons, who was originally charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action after she allegedly stabbed 73-year-old Wiggins six times with a long-bladed kitchen knife on July 20, 2012. Wiggins was the father of former Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Bearden.

Last week, Ozark County Prosecuting Attorney John Garrabrant filed his objection to the mental health center’s motion for release, and a hearing will be set before Circuit Judge Craig Carter in the near future. Details on the court hearing are not yet available.

Bearden told the Times Monday that he and other family members plan to attend the hearing when it is scheduled, and he hopes to be able to give a statement opposing Plemmons’ release. 

“We do not believe she should be released,” Bearden said. “If released, we believe she will return to her old habits and do the same thing to someone else.”

The alleged murder

Shortly after the charges were filed in 2012, Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed, who was chief deputy for Sheriff Raymond Pace at the time, told the Times that Plemmons, lived in a separate home on the Wiggins property and was arrested at the residence without a struggle. Plemmons was reportedly sitting on the sofa watching Wiggins bleed from the gashes she had inflicted when law enforcement officers arrived at the scene. Wiggins was alert and able to talk with emergency responders but died later that afternoon in Springfield’s Mercy Hospital after being airlifted there. 

Wiggins’ son, former Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Bearden, told the Times shortly after the murder that his dad was known to help those in need, and Plemmons, who was a distant cousin on his mother’s side, was one of the people he helped. 

“She didn’t have anything, no place to go, so he took her in and let her live in that place of his. He made sure she got to her doctor appointments and let her work for him cleaning or washing dishes and doing yardwork to earn her keep,” said Bearden, who clarified that he is Wiggins’ “full-blooded son” despite having a different last name.

Bearden’s brother, Anthony Wiggins, also of Tecumseh, called him to let him know what had happened that July 2012 night. Bearden immediately called his dad’s house. 

“I talked to Dad and asked him how bad he was hurt,” Bearden said. “He’s always been a very calm individual. He said, ‘I’m hurting, but I think I’ll be all right. I think she hit some ribs.’ I asked him where she was, and he said, ‘She’s still sitting there on the couch.’”

In the background, Bearden said he could hear Plemmons “yabbering away.” 

He got there in time to help emergency responders carry his dad to the waiting ambulance, which took him to the helicopter landing zone for the flight to Springfield.

After the helicopter left, Bearden and wife Stephane headed for Springfield to join Wiggins in the hospital. “But just as we were walking in the door, Raymond [former Ozark County Sheriff Raymond Pace] called and said he had passed,” Bearden said. “And then it was a whole different crime.”

A history of strange behavior and mental illness

During Plemmons’ original arraignment hearing before former Associate Judge John Jacobs, she reportedly asked the judge what she was being charged with. When he told her first degree murder, she shouted, “Why am I being charged with that? He ain’t dead! He ain’t dead!” The strange behavior reportedly continued, as she was jailed in preparation for the homicide trial. 

During a June 28, 2013, hearing before Circuit Judge Craig Carter, former Prosecuting Attorney Tom Cline told the court that he had personally witnessed strange behavior on multiple occasions from Plemmons throughout his lengthy career in law enforcement and prosecution. Cline said most recently while incarcerated after the murder of Wiggins, Plemmons painted her jail cell with her own feces, carried on multiple conversations with herself, assaulted personnel and threatened other prisoners.

“I have been dealing with Ms. Plemmons for over 20 years, and she has demonstrated bizarre behavior that has only gotten worse,” Cline said at the hearing, pointing to Plemmons’ long history with law enforcement. “Unfortunately the system was incapable of dealing with her mental illness in her earlier years.”

Defense attorney Linda McKinney told the judge that Plemmons has also had a history of psychotic events including extended psychiatric hospital stays since the year 2000. 

Plemmons was evaluated by two experts prior to being committed to the Department of Mental Health. Expert William Logan, hired by the defense, and Bridgett Graham, hired by the state, both agreed that Plemmons had  a mental disease or defect at the time of the murder and was incapable of understanding the consequences of her actions. 

Cline and McKinney both said the case was unusual and neither had ever been involved in a case where both the state and defense experts agree that a person is mentally insane. Within the lengthy documents submitted to the court before her 2013 hearing, the experts reportedly found that Plemmons suffers from schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia, among other mental health problems. 

Cline told Carter that Missouri statutes dictate that if both experts agree a defendant was not mentally sane at the time of the crime, the defense and the court have to rely on the experts’ opinion. 

There was ‘nothing to decide’

“Oftentimes if a person commits a crime they are brought before a judge, and a jury usually decides if the defendant is guilty or not,” Carter told Fred Wiggins’ sister, brother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who were present for the 2013 hearing. “In this case, the statutes are clear. Essentially there isn’t anything to be decided here.”

Carter accepted Plemmons’ plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, and released her into the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. After the court hearing, Plemmons was transferred to the Fulton State Hospital, where she was committed to a confined, lock-down unit and was scheduled to undergo several different types of therapy and treatment. 

“Do you understand that you will be leaving here to go to a facility where you may never be released?” Carter asked Plemmons at the 2013 hearing. “It’s not called prison, but for all intents and  purposes, it’ll be the same.”

“Yes, sir. I’ve been there before,” Plemmons answered. 

Carter did tell those attending the court hearing that Plemmons can petition the court for a conditional release or an unconditional release from the Missouri Department of Mental Health in the future. The hearing would call for a new mental evaluation, and all interested parties would be invited to give statements of their opinion to the court to consider. Carter said that although it is possible, the release of an individual placed into the custody of the Missouri Department of Mental Health under similar circumstances is not common.

If released, conditions will have to met

Garrabrant told the Times last week that the Southeast Missouri Mental Health Center now holds the burden of proof to show to the court that it is convincingly and clearly evident that Plemmons is no longer a threat to herself or others. If the court grants her a conditional release, she will reportedly be confined to a residential facility in Marble Hill, Missouri, for at least one year. At the end of the year, she would then be able to apply for an unconditional release to the public. To be considered for the unconditional release, she would need to be medication compliant, have no alcohol and be seeking employment, among other conditions.