Jazsmin Halliburton
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Jefferson City man has been convicted after he stabbed the mother of his child to death.
Sergio Sayles was found guilty on all three counts Thursday in a Boone County courtroom.
Boone County Judge Brouck Jacobs gave his verdict in the case against a Jefferson City man shortly after hearing the closing arguments.
Sayles, 39, was convicted on charges of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and tampering with evidence related to the death of Jasmine King in April 2023. Two misdemeanor counts were dismissed before the trial started.
A final disposition hearing is set for Dec. 1.
In April 2023, police found Jasmine King dead from multiple stab wounds in her home on West Ashley Street. Witness statements and surveillance video reportedly connected Sayles to the crime scene, and police recovered the murder weapon and some of Sayles’ belongings in a trash bag at McClung Park.
King had previously reported harassment and stalking by Sayles, including a complaint in 2021 where she alleged that Sayles threatened to shoot her.
Closing statements were given on both sides on Thursday. The state highlighted deliberation and intent in the crime as King was stabbed at least 25 times. The state argued that stab wounds and defensive wounds showed a prolonged struggle and Sayles had time to think about what he was doing.
The state also circled back to Sayles’ interview with police, saying he showed no remorse or shock after finding out King had been murdered and he didn’t ask questions about what happened either. The prosecution says that’s because Sayles already knew what happened to King.
The State said Sayles’ alibi wasn’t consistent either and that cell phone mapping puts him in and around the area of King’s apartment at the time of her murder.
Sayles’ ring with King’s blood found on it, his clothes with King’s blood and his DNA found on them. The knife investigators believe to be the murder weapon was also highlighted by prosecutors in closing statements.
The state said Sayles and King had been consistently communicating for days, but his last message to King the morning of her murder went unread. They said Sayles did not attempt to reach out to King after that final message because he knew she was already dead.
The state was firm in its claim that every lead detectives followed in the case led back to Sayles.
In closing statements by the defense, they argued the case against Sayles is ‘infected’ with bias and misconduct. They revisited evidence, like his car, being destroyed by the Jefferson City Police Department when a court order was in place for its preservation.
In the car, where Sayles was living at the time of the murder, police found two pairs of jeans with possible stains and three pairs of shoes they wanted to test for DNA. After the search, the car was destroyed by the towing company.
Sayles’ defense said Jeremy Bowman, a former JCPD detective who led the case, decided Sayles was guilty from the beginning and failed to pursue other obvious leads.
The defense said there was no info on the seizure of Sayles’ ring and more than an hour in between the photo of other evidence and the photo of the ring, so there is no way to tell when King’s blood got on the ring. They also said the ring was not properly secured and left in Bowman’s desk for days. The ring didn’t make it to the evidence lab until one week after the murder.
In its rebuttal, the state said Bowman had secured the ring in an evidence bag and kept it in a secure drawer in his desk.
Sayles’ counsel painted a healthy narrative around Sayles and King’s relationship as co-parents. They described how the day before King’s murder, she and Sayles were on good terms and celebrated Easter together with their daughter, along with an Easter egg hunt. They said King would also invite Sayles to stay at her apartment from time to time.
The defense also said there is reasonable doubt in the timeline of events surrounding King’s murder. They said her time of death is unknown and that no evidence was presented around when King got home from work that morning. They also noted her body was not found until 5:30 that evening.
What is known, according to the defense, is that Sayles spoke with King on the phone at 6:41 a.m. the day she died. Sayles alleges that he fell asleep and phone records show he texted King an hour later that he was going to the park.
The defense said Sayles was at the park the morning of the murder at 8:07 a.m. and spent the day there writing music. His lawyers say that is not the behavior of a person who just stabbed someone to death.
The defense then circled back to Sayles’ interview with the police. They said Sayles talked about jasmine in the present tense during his interview and was cooperative. He also gave consent to officers to search his phone. The defense also said that no officers noted wounds or scratches on Sayles, even though King is said to have fought her attacker.
The defense said no blood was found on Sayles body or in his hair when he was first arrested the day of the murder. Sayles’ DNA and fingerprints were also not found on the knife and no evidence was presented that Sayles owned the knife, according to the defense.
In response, the state said blood was on Sergio based on the ring recovered and that the investigation shows King’s killer tried to clean themselves off in her kitchen sink.
The defense introduced alternative theories in their closing statement. They said a long, brown, wavy hair was found on the murder weapon and that a man with similar hair had come into the Break Time where King worked multiple times during her last shift. They said King told the man information about her apartment and when she was getting off work.
They also suggested the clothing and knife recovered from the trash can at McClung Park were placed after Sayles arrest. They said the park was left unmonitored and unsealed for 6 hours after he was taken into custody. Two officers found the items when they went back to the park to search after midnight on April 11, 2023.
The state said officers saw Sayles at the park earlier in the day, walking towards the park’s bathroom with something in his hand, believed to be the knife wrapped in clothing that was found, and then saw him moments later without it in his hand. The state explained that one of the officers did a brief search of the area after that, but did not locate the clothes at that time. The state explained that the officer did not know what he was looking for in the initial search and that the clothes found were black, potentially hard to see in a black garbage bag with a quick glance.
The state remained firm that the investigation was not ‘botched’ and the defense has no grounds for their claims of fabrication. Prosecutors said Sayles was angry at King for making a life on her own and that his anger led him to kill her.
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