By JEREMY PELZER and JOSHUA WOLFSON Star-Tribune staff writers | Posted: Friday, July 8, 2011 9:30 pm
Law enforcement officials escort Everett Conant III to the Platte County Detention Center Friday following his initial hearing on four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the shooting deaths of his brother and three sons Thursday night in Wheatland.
Witnesses recount Wheatland shooting
Liz Copper and Jessica Kornder talk about what they saw and their experiences during a quadruple homicide that occurred July 7, 2011 in Wheatland.
WHEATLAND -- A man gunned down his three children and his brother and attempted to kill his wife during an attack at a trailer park where he lived, authorities said Friday.
Everett Conant III, 35, faces four counts of first-degree murder and one charge of attempted murder following the Thursday evening shooting. The murder charges carry a maximum sentence of death or life behind bars.
A judge ordered Conant held without bond.
Authorities did not release the identities of the children, and their names were redacted from court documents released late Friday afternoon. One of them, Joseph, was identified during Conant's court appearance. Neighbors said the other boys were named Charlie and Everett or "E.J."
Court documents identified the brother who was fatally shot as Nacuma Conant. Police said he did not live at the home.
Neighbors reported hearing loud pops and screaming just before 6 p.m. Thursday. When Liz Copper, who was painting a nearby trailer, looked over, she saw a bleeding woman burst out of the home. As the woman tried to run away, a man appeared in the doorway carrying two pistols, Copper said.
The man released the clips and let them fall to the ground, she said. He then appeared to reload the weapons.
At that moment, Copper heard sirens and saw the man go back into the mobile home.
"That's probably what saved her, honest to God," she said.
Wheatland police arrived at the Oak Street home in response to a shots-fired call, said Chief Randy Chesser. The first officer on scene saw Conant's wife screaming as she ran down the road.
The woman told the officer she had been shot by her husband, according to a court document filed by prosecutors. She also said her husband might have shot her children.
A police officer tried to contact someone inside the home, when he heard a gunshot from inside the trailer. The officer was joined by Platte County sheriff's deputies and, together, they breached the door.
Officers heard a man talking inside the home and saw him holding something black in his hand, according to the court document. They spoke with Conant for 10 minutes before he surrendered without incident.
He was not armed, police said.
When Conant finally emerged from the house, neighbors said he had a grotesque grin that remained even when police pushed his face down into the dirt.
"It was a permanent grin. He was on the ground with a frozen clown face," Copper said. "I can't take the look of his effing face out of my head, ever."
Officers found the children's bodies inside the home. They also discovered Nacuma Conant, who was still alive but wounded, and began live-saving measures.
He died later at a Platte County Memorial Hospital.
Authorities say Suzette Conant was shot in her shoulder and leg. A woman with that name was listed in good condition Friday at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, said hospital spokesman James Watson.
Property tax records list Suzette and Everett Conant III as owners of the home where the shooting took place. Police said they have no records of prior activity at the home.
Neighbor Jessica Kornder said she was cooking dinner about 6 p.m. when she heard two loud pops. At first, she though they were fireworks. Then she heard a scream like nothing she had heard before.
Kornder ran outside and saw Conant's wife against a fence post, bleeding from wounds to her shoulder and foot.
"She kept looking at me and saying, ‘He shot my babies, he shot my babies,'" Kornder said.
Kornder said the three boys who were killed would play with her children. She saw one of the boys entering the Conant home Thursday evening and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
The Conant kids were frequent and welcome sights around the neighborhood, according to people who lived nearby.
Several neighbors said the boys would regularly come over to play video games or have sleepovers with their children.
"They had a lot of friends, even though they were challenged," Copper said.
E.J., neighbors said, was sweet, though several neighbors said he acted younger than he was. He was known for wearing his pants high up on his waist.
Charlie acted more his age and loved playing video games, Copper said. Joey was the youngest and the quietest, she said.
Suzette, despite being the family's primary breadwinner, worked hard to find time for her kids, said Syndi Austin, another neighbor. During the winter, while other kids walked to the school bus stop, Suzette warmed up the cars and drove her boys, Austin said.
"Those boys were her life," Austin said.
Austin described Everett Conant as a bitter, moody man who kept to himself. "Butch," as he was known in the neighborhood, seemed insecure about his difficulties holding down a job.
"I think maybe his sense of manhood was challenged," Austin said.
On one occasion, Austin said a neighborhood boy walked by Conant's house when Butch was out front with his dogs. When the boy passed by, Conant let go of the leashes and dogs attacked the boy, she claimed.
But Austin said the senior Everett also had "a sweet side": He entered two of his sons in the Special Olympics. He also babysat for neighborhood children.
Austin said Nacuma would often visit the family, possibly to cheer his brother Everett up and calm him down.
"I think he acted as a buffer for the aggravation and the violence," she said.
Conant made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Wheatland. He wore a yellow jail uniform and shackles on his hands and feet.
Speaking in a whisper, he answered procedural questions from Circuit Judge Scott Cole. Conant was represented by defense attorney Eric Palen.
In addition to the murder and attempted murder charges, Conant is accused of aggravated battery and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent.
A date for his preliminary hearing has not been scheduled.
The killings come less than a month after 22-year-old Christopher Walker was shot to death in an alley near a Wheatland bar. Jesus A. Gonzalez-Ochoa, 27, has been arrested in connection with that killing.
Before Walker's killing, Wheatland had gone nine years without a homicide.
"We go years and years and years and nothing like this happens," Wheatland Mayor Jean Dixon said Friday. "And then you wonder why this little community, when we do seem so close."
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