HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — The man accused of killing a popular Warrensburg bar owner in September 2012 is to stand trial Tuesday for first-degree murder.
Reginald Singletary, 28, was one of two men arrested for William Blaine Whitworth’s murder.
However, in August 2013, charges were dropped against Ziyad T. Abid, who has since returned to Saudi Arabia.
Investigators say Singletary, a bouncer at Whitworth’s bar called “Molly’s”, told them Ziyad Abid paid him to murder Whitworth.
Whitworth was found at his Warrensburg home on Sept. 1, 2012, shot and killed. He was 25-years old.
Less than a year after their arrests, and after a judge twice refused to release Abid even though his family was able to post two million dollars in bond, prosecutors announced they were dropping charges against Abid because they no longer had evidence to support the charges.
Lynn Stoppy, Johnson County, Mo., prosecuting attorney said in August that their understanding of evidence in the case had changed.
“Abid was originally charged based on evidence resulting from the criminal investigation. Very recently, our understanding of evidence previously obtained from a critical witness has changed. As a result, the State is currently left without sufficient evidence to support the prosecution at this time,” said Stoppy.
Singletary’s trial was moved out of the Warrensburg, Johnson County, Mo., area to Harrisonville in Cass County.
Singletary graduated from Winnetonka High School in 2003, and then went to Missouri Valley College to play football as a linebacker. He later returned to Winnetonka as a parprofessional and football coach during the 2010-2011 season. The district said he left in good standing to take another job in February 2011.
