On the evening of October 23, 2017, law enforcement officials in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, responded to a distress call at the intersection of South Summer and East Joe Davis Streets. Upon arrival, officers discovered 34-year-old Brandon Keith lying unresponsive partially in the roadway. He had sustained a severe gunshot wound to the head. Emergency medical personnel transported him initially to Cedar County Memorial Hospital before transferring him to Mercy Hospital in Springfield for more
advanced trauma care. Despite medical intervention, he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead the following day, October 24, 2017.
The ensuing investigation by the El Dorado Springs Police Department, assisted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local sheriff's offices, quickly identified a suspect. Charles Shane Green was apprehended and initially held on unrelated charges of receiving stolen property and resisting arrest, for which he later received a seven-year sentence. As the homicide investigation progressed, authorities built a case connecting him to the fatal shooting. In March 2018, the Cedar County Prosecutor’s Office formally charged Green with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the male victim.
Legal proceedings continued for several years, culminating in a plea agreement in late 2021. Rather than proceeding to a trial for the original capital charge, Green entered an Alford plea of guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. This plea allowed him to accept the punishment while maintaining his innocence, acknowledging that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to convict him. In November 2021, the court sentenced Green to 20 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Months later, in May 2022, Green filed a motion to vacate his conviction, claiming ineffective legal counsel and arguing that his plea had been made involuntarily, though he remained incarcerated serving his sentence.
