Campbell man found guilty of manslaughter, evidence tampering, abandoning corpse

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (KBSI) – A Butler County jury found a Campbell man guilty of manslaughter, evidence tampering and abandoning a corpse.

Phillip Cooper, 62, of Campbell was found guilty in the October 2021 shooting death of Jerry Ott.

Jerry Ott of Bernie was reported missing just after midnight on October 24, 2021. The Dunklin County Sheriff’s Office coordinated an intense missing person search which included the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Missouri Department of Conservation, and the Malden, Campbell, and Holcomb fire departments.

Three days later on October 27, Cooper confessed to law enforcement that he shot and killed Ott, burned his body, and then collected and threw the ashes off nearby bridges, according to Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Jain.

Investigators could not find any of Ott’s remains, but they found evidence on Cooper’s property where topsoil had been removed and covered with leaves and branches.

Cooper told law enforcement that after burning Ott’s body and removing the evidence, he used ashes from his home furnace to set up a decoy burn pit nearby.

The Butler County jury deliberated for more than three hours and sided with the prosecutor despite Cooper’s claim that Ott had pulled a firearm before he was shot.

Cooper was originally charged with murder and the jury found Cooper guilty of voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence, and abandonment of a corpse.

The jury recommended the maximum possible sentence on three of the four counts, sentencing the defendant to 15 years in the Department of Corrections on voluntary manslaughter, three years on armed criminal action and four years on both tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse.

“Prosecuting a homicide case without the victim’s body is always difficult,” said Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas Jain. “I commend the jury for looking past the defendant’s claim of self-defense and holding him accountable, and I pray this conviction may bring some peace of mind to the victim’s family.”

The trial was conducted by the Honorable Michael Pritchett.

A formal sentencing hearing was set for Sept. 26 following a sentencing assessment report by the Division of Probation and Parole.