Man charged with manslaughter in child’s death enters Alford plea
Ryan Shiner
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Morgan County man who was accused of kidnapping his children from Nebraska before getting into a crash that killed one of them entered an Alford plea on Monday.
Larry Lunnin Sr. entered an Alford plea to second-degree involuntary manslaughter and two counts of child abduction. An Alford plea occurs when a defendant maintains their innocence but admits evidence would likely result in a guilty verdict if the case went to trial.
He will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Monday, June 23. He was previously charged with second-degree murder, second-degree involuntary manslaughter, two counts of child abduction and driving on the wrong side of the road, previous reporting indicates.
Lunnin was driving a Jeep when he crashed on Route W south of Marvin Cutoff in Morgan County, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report in previous reporting. Lunnin and a 7-year-old boy in the Jeep suffered minor injuries. A 3-year-old boy was killed in the crash.
The boys are Lunnin’s sons, according court documents in previous reporting. Lunnin reportedly told an investigator that he took the boys from Nebraska between January-March 2022 and they were traveling until he purchased his Rocky Mount property in June 2022.