OLATHE, Kan. — Three of the four young men accused of killing Shawnee gun shop owner Jon Bieker during a botched robbery in January are to be in Johnson County court this week for their preliminary hearing, in which the prosecution presents its evidence against the suspects.
The four men charged in the ‘She’s A Pistol’ store robbery and murder are:
De’Anthony Armond Wiley, 20
Hakeem Willie Malik, 18
Londro Emanuel Patterson, 20
Nicquan Ke-Aaron Midgyett, 20
De’Anthony Wiley will not participate in the preliminary hearing because his attorney says he is going to plead guilty to Felony Murder. Wiley’s Attorney says he is not admitting to being the gunman, but admitting that the murder occurred in the course of the robbery in which he was involved.
With his plea, Wiley waives his right to a jury trial and will proceed directly to sentencing.
The formal guilty plea will take place at a hearing in August. There is no plea agreement and at this point and Wiley is not scheduled to be a witness for the prosecution.
Prosecutors say that on January 9, the four suspects went into the store to commit armed robbery. Jon Bieker, 44, and Bieker’s wife Becky, were in the store at the time. Prosecutors say Becky Bieker was showing De’Anthony Wiley, 20, a gun when the three others entered the shop.
Police say surveillance video shows Wiley and Patterson pointing guns at her. She raised her hands, and at that point police say Nicquan Midgyett, 20, jumped over the counter and hit her. Police say Jon Bieker emerged from a back room shooting a gun.
According to court documents, three of the suspects then ran out of the shop, two of them hit by gunfire. Police say they found Midgyett and Malik at a nearby home after a woman called 911 to report someone banging on her back porch door. Police say they found Patterson crawling in the store’s parking lot with multiple gun shot wounds.
Wiley dropped to the floor after being shot, police say. Jon Bieker is reportedly seen on surveillance coming from around the counter towards Wiley when he was shot in the leg, but continued to shoot in Wiley’s direction. Jon was later taken to a hospital in critical condition where he died at age 44. He had been shot four times, according to the coroner. One bullet went through his heart’s aorta and settled in his spine, leaving him incapacitated. The other shots came after he was already down, according to the autopsy.
For the first time, ‘She’s A Pistol’ owner Becky Bieker is coming face-to-face with the men accused of the murder of her husband.
Bieker reiterated that she will continue her and John’s dream and belief that “we all have the right to protect ourselves and we all have the right to lead a happy, safe life. People don’t have the right to take that from us,” she said.
“John is always with me. Always,” she said.