Moberly police officer who arrested double murder suspect in Columbia testifies in court

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

Jury selection lasted six hours on Tuesday in the trial of 37-year-old Cadilac Derrick, who is charged in Boone County with two counts of first-degree murder and four other felonies in connection with the deaths of 22-year-old Lea'johna Sanders and 53-year-old Laura Myers in November 2022.

939 The Eagle News was back in the courtroom Wednesday for the second day of the trial: Derrick wore a dark suit, blue dress shirt and red tie. Moberly police Officer Nate West, who arrested Derrick after the 2022 killings in the Magic City, took the stand. The jury and spectators in the courtroom watched body camera footage that showed Derrick speaking to Moberly police after he called them and said he had to turn himself in. Derrick told Moberly police that night at a Conoco gas station that his girlfriend, Sanders, had tried to kill him and that he shot her in self-defense. Derrick also stated that Sanders accidentally shot her mother that night.

According to court documents, Derrick and Sanders had a young son, and Sanders called 911 in November 2022 to report that Derrick was abusing her. Sanders told the operator that Derrick would not leave her house and that he would kill her and her mother if she did not stay with him. That 911 call was played in court on Tuesday, and the jury could hear several gunshots on the tape.

Assistant Boone County Attorney Risa Perkins told the jury in her opening statement that Derrick repeatedly threatened to kill Sanders and once threatened to “blow her head off.” Defense attorney Joseph Whitener tells the jury that Sanders and Myers were killed in self-defense. Attorney Whitener tells the jury that both women were drunk that night and that this is not and never was a murder case.

The trial could last until Friday.