By AP/KWMU
St. Charles, MO – A St. Charles County jury on Saturday found Kenneth Baumruk guilty of killing his wife and wounding four others at the St. Louis County courthouse, during the couple's divorce hearing, in 1992.
Baumruk, 67, was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of his wife, Mary. It was his second trial, after a guilty verdict in the first was overturned by the state's highest court.
Jurors deliberated for a little more than two hours; they ignored pleas by defense attorneys Robert Steele and David Kenyon to find Baumruk not guilty by reason of insanity.
The two attorneys argued during the weeklong trial that Baumruk suffered from "delusional disorder" and couldn't appreciate the wrongness of his actions.
There was little question he fired the fatal shots. Several people witnessed the shooting in May 2001, and it was captured on audiotape.
St. Louis County prosecutors J.B. Lasater and Dean Waldemer told jurors that Baumruk knew what he was doing. They said he bought two guns in January 1992 and told co-workers at Boeing Co. that he would "kill them all" at the couple's hearing, including his wife, the attorneys and the judge.
They said Baumruk packed the guns in his suitcase for a flight from Seattle to St. Louis. For the bus ride to the courthouse, they said he put the pistols in his briefcase and put ammunition in his coat pockets.
As the hearing began, Baumruk pulled out one of the pistols and began shooting.
Baumruk was convicted of murder by a St. Louis County jury in 2001 and sentenced to death. But the Missouri Supreme Court threw out the conviction, saying the trial should have been moved out of the same courthouse where the shooting occurred.
Baumruk was not determined mentally fit for his second trial until August 2005.