Four charged in slaying of former Packer

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January 31, 2007

Wayne Grandy The Moultrie Observer Wed Jan 31, 2007, 09:22 PM EST

MOULTRIE — Four men were charged Wednesday in Cherokee County (Kan.) District Court in the shooting death of former Colquitt County High basketball star Jamey Richardson.

Richardson, 26, was found dead in a car around 2 a.m. Tuesday in front of a home in Baxter Springs, Kan. Police were called to the scene after receiving a call from a person in the neighborhood who heard two gunshots.

First-degree felony murder charges were filed against Samuel Becker of Columbus, Edward Gordon of Baxter Springs, Aaron Graham of Pittsburg and Geoffrey Haynes of Galena on Wednesday in Columbus, Kan.

The four men also were charged with two counts each of felony kidnapping. It was alleged that they confined two other people by force or threat, according to documents filed with the District Court office in Columbus.

Baxter Springs Police Chief Dave Edmondson told the Pittsburg (Kan,) Morning Sun that the shooting was “not a big drug case.”

“This is just a homicide,” he said.

Funeral arrangements have not been made.

Richardson, a four-year starter for the Packers who graduated in 2000, played two seasons for the nearby Pittsburg State (Kan.) University basketball team, finishing his collegiate career in 2004.

Keith Hall, his Colquitt County High coach, said the news of Richardson’s shooting death “really shook me.”

“He was the most mild-mannered kid I coached,” Hall said of Richardson, who played for the Packers from 1996-2000. “Just a really nice, super kid.”

After graduating from Colquitt County High, Richardson played two seasons at Southwest Missouri State-West Plains before moving on to Pittsburg State.

“I remember he was one of the nicest kids you would ever want to be around,” Pittsburg State men’s coach Gene Iba told The Pittsburg Morning Sun. “He was sometimes too laid back. He liked everybody. He cared for everybody. He’d give you the shirt off your back.

“The only fault I ever had with him as a player was sometimes he wasn’t mean enough. He was a likable kid. We liked having him around. There wasn’t a sorry bone in his body.”

At Pittsburg State, he averaged 14.5 points and 10.4 rebounds as a junior and 15 points and 10.6 rebounds as a senior.

Richardson was a first-team all-conference as a senior and was an honorable mention all-conference selection as a junior.

Despite playing just two seasons at Pittsburg State, he ranks 10th on the school’s career rebounding list with 558. His single-season totals of 290 as a junior and 268 as a senior rank fourth and eighth in school history.

Richardson holds the Gorillas’ record to blocked shots in a career with 143, in a season with 77 and in a game with six.

Hall remembers Richardson as an eighth-grader who could take a rebound off the rim and dunk it.

“He played as an eighth-grader on the JV and he was doing some things basketball-wise you just didn’t seen done in high school,” Hall said of Richardson, who was the son of former All-Region Colquitt County girls basketball player Gwen Richardson.

In his first game as a varsity player on Nov. 28, 1996, Richardson scored 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had two assists. He went on to lead the Packers in rebounds for four seasons and in scoring for three. He was a three-time all-region selection and played in 97 games as a Packer.

As a senior, he averaged 15.1 points a game.

“He may have been the best pure athlete that I coached,” Hall said.

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