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More charges for suspect in VA hospital killing

Brian Turner
/
Flickr

A 33-year-old Sedalia man charged with killing a fellow VA hospital patient in Columbia now faces Pettis County assault charges.

The Columbia Missourian reports that Rudy Perez Jr. is charged with five misdemeanor assaults as well as resisting arrest in connection with several Sedalia incidents in the days before the Feb. 1 beating death of 78-year-old Robert Hill of Warsaw at Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital.

Perez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His lawyer says Perez is mentally ill.

The new charges include an alleged assault of a Perez neighbor; two domestic assaults involving Perez's parents as they tried to take him to the hospital; and an incident in the Pettis jail.

Perez was initially arrested in Sedalia but released after 24 hours without charges being filed.
 

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