Man charged with double murder in Cape Girardeau appears in cour - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

A Cape Girardeau man appeared in court Monday morning for charges in connection with the shooting death of two people in Cape Girardeau.

Kenneth D. Bell, Jr., 22, of Cape Girardeau is charged with two counts of murder in the 1st degree and one count of armed criminal action.

He appeared in court via video conference.

Holly Brantley was there. She tells us Bell told the judge he understood the charges against him and was appointed a public defender.

Bell is due back in court in March.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department were called to 401 S. Pacific around 11:45 p.m. Thursday.

Shortly after arriving on scene, officers found a man hiding in an alley way.

When officers tried to approach the man, he fled but was caught and taken into custody.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton says Shannon James, 43, and Misty Cole, 39, both of Cape Girardeau were shot multiple times. Their bodies were found in the first apartment of the building just inside the entryway.

Officers found two opened boxes of ammunition, several single rounds of live ammunition scattered on the floor, and an empty pistol holster on the table in Bell's apartment on the same floor.

According to the probable cause statement, a witness told police that Bell and James got into a verbal argument while the witness and James were walking on Bloomfield Road.

As the witness and James were entering James' apartment, the witness saw Bell come from his apartment with a semi-automatic handgun, according to the probable cause statement.

James tried to run into his apartment and the witness ran back out the front door. The witness heard several shots fired, then a three to five second pause and a second round of shots fired.

A neighbor describes those early morning hours, saying she had an eerie feeling before the shots even rang out.

"Sitting up in bed working my puzzle books and I heard something go 'pow-pow-pow' and I thought that's strange, and then I heard it again, said Norene Maevers.  "So, I got up and walked into the living room and there was a fire truck and ambulance and seven police cars and tape around it, and I thought-oh boy."

Officers found a handgun that matched the witness's description on the roof of an attached building at 403 S. Pacific. The rounds in the handgun matched the casings in the hallway of James' apartment and the boxes in Bell's apartment.

Bell's bond was set at $2.5 million.

No further arrests are expected.

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