On the evening of February 18, 2023, authorities in St. Louis County, Missouri, were alerted to a violent incident at a residence in the usually quiet community of Hanley Hills. Police officers from the North County Police Cooperative were dispatched to a home located in the 7800 block of Utica Drive shortly after 1:00 p.m. upon receiving a report of a deceased person. Inside the residence, they discovered the body of 43-year-old John Harold Stevens, a male resident of the home.
He had sustained fatal injuries, having been shot multiple times in the head, and was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.
The investigation, which required the activation of the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis due to the severity of the crime, quickly pieced together the events leading up to the homicide. Detectives learned that earlier that evening, Stevens and his roommate had driven to Overland to pick up an acquaintance, Terry Wayne Winebarger II, and brought him back to the Utica Drive home. According to investigative reports, the situation turned deadly later that night while Stevens was asleep. Winebarger used a handgun to shoot the sleeping man before stealing several items from him, including the firearm used in the killing, jewelry, and a quantity of methamphetamine.
Law enforcement officers identified Winebarger, a resident of Cuba, Missouri, as the primary suspect shortly after the discovery of the body. He was taken into custody, and the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office initially filed charges against him for first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was held at the St. Louis County Justice Center on a cash-only bond set at one million dollars. Witness statements and evidence collected at the scene indicated that the violence was not a random act but a targeted attack involving individuals who knew one another.
The legal proceedings against Winebarger continued into the following year, culminating in a federal plea agreement. In July 2024, the suspect appeared in court and admitted his guilt regarding the fatal encounter. He pleaded guilty to multiple federal charges, including possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime resulting in death. This admission formally resolved the criminal questions surrounding the death of John Harold Stevens, with sentencing scheduled for later that year.
