UPDATE: Jury hears opening arguments in high-profile double murder trial in Columbia

A Boone County jury will hear more prosecution witnesses Wednesday morning in a high-profile double murder trial in Columbia.

It took about six hours for the jury to be selected in the murder trial of 37-year-old Cadilac Derrick. Boone County prosecutors have charged Derrick with two counts of first-degree murder and four other felonies.. Derrick is accused of shooting 22-year-old Lea'johna Sanders and her 53-year-old mother Laura Myers.

939 The Eagle News was at the Boone County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon to make opening statements. Cadilac Derrick wore a black suit, white dress shirt and red tie. According to court documents, Derrick and Sanders had a young son, and Sanders called 911 in November 2022 to say Derrick had been abusive to her. Sanders told the operator that Derrick would not leave her house and that he would take her and her mother's lives if she did not stay with him. That brief 911 call was played in court Tuesday, and the jury could hear several gunshots on the tape, perhaps four or five.

Assistant Boone County Prosecutor Risa Perkins tells the jury in her opening statements that Derrick repeatedly threatened to kill Sanders and once threatened to “blow her head off.” Prosecutor Perkins also says that Derrick strangled Sanders three months before her murder and also punched her in the stomach. Defense attorney Joseph Whitener tells the jury that this is not a murder case and never has been one: He says it is a case of self-defense. He says Sanders and Myers were killed in self-defense. Attorney Whitener tells the jury that both women were drunk that night and that one of them had a hammer. He also says that Myers “unleashed chaos” that night by coming to the house and banging on the door.

Boone County District Judge Brouck Jacobs said in open court that the trial could last until Friday.

Columbia Police and City Manager De'Carlon Seewood found that 9 of the 11 homicides in Columbia in 2022 were the result of domestic violence.