By AP/KWMU
Hermann, MO. – Charges are mounting against a St. Louis area man accused in an eastern Missouri robbery last month that indirectly led to the death of a state trooper.
Gasconade County prosecutors charged Massigh Stallmann of High Ridge Wednesday with second-degree murder in the traffic-related death Missouri state trooper Ralph Tatoian.
Tatoian died when his car slammed into the back of a stopped semitrailer on Interstate 44 west of St. Louis, while responding to the manhunt for Stallmann.
Even though Tatoian did not die directly because of a crime, Stallmann by state law may be charged with murder because Tatoian died in connection with Stallmann's "perpetration or immediate flight from a felony."
Stallmann is jailed on $500,000 bond. He's now charged with ten felonies.