Pensioner charged with shooting lawyer dead after 'accidentally recording himself confessing'

Tom Pickert, 39, was killed outside his home in October 2017

David Jungerman reportedly forgot to turn an audio recorder off (Kansas City Police Department)

An 80-year-old man has been charged with fatally shooting a man in his front yard after he allegedly recorded himself saying he had committed murder.

Tom Pickert, a 39-year-old lawyer, was shot dead in October 2017 in Kansas City, shortly after walking his children to school.

David Jungerman, 80, has been charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

A court heard how Mr Jungerman implicated himself when he accidentally recorded himself saying he had killed someone. Prosecutors said he appeared to have forgotten to switch off an audio recorder he had been using.

“People uh know that I murdered that son of a...” he said, the Kansas City Star reported.

Before his death, Mr Pickert had won a lawsuit for a client in which Mr Jungerman was ordered to pay out more than $5m.

Mr Jungerman had shot two homeless men who he said broke into his business in 2012.

Mr Pickert, a father of two, was found dead outside his home the day after a judge ordered that Mr Jungerman’s property be seized to pay off his debt.

Although Mr Jungerman was not initially considered a suspect, a van belonging to him was found, connecting him to the lawyer’s death, police said.

Witnesses had reported seeing an older man with grey hair parking a white van across the street from the victim’s home on the morning of the shooting.

A similar van was seen driving away in the moments after Mr Pickert was shot.

Mr Jungerman also reportedly told an employee he had “killed a lawyer with a gun” and had “got away with it”, the court heard.

His lawyer said he “emphatically denies” the allegations against him.

Mr Jungerman is already being held in prison after being accused of shooting a man he suspected of stealing an iron pipe from his building.