A 21-year-old Missouri woman has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally shooting her boyfriend in the head on New Year’s Eve 2022, after discovering text messages he had sent to other women.
Webster County Circuit Judge Chuck C. Replogle on Monday ordered Madison Nicole Rueckert to serve the lengthy prison term for the killing of 24-year-old Jonathan Miller, according to court records. Rueckert will serve 25 years for second-degree murder and an additional 10 years for armed criminal action — sentences that will run consecutively.
Rueckert was initially charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action, but prosecutors reached a plea agreement with her last month in which she pleaded guilty to the lesser charges.
The shooting took place at a residence in Marshfield, Missouri. According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Marshfield Mail, Rueckert became enraged after going through Miller’s phone and allegedly finding flirtatious messages he had exchanged with other women.
Authorities said Rueckert waited until Miller fell asleep before taking a firearm and shooting him in the head. After the killing, she fled the scene and drove to a wooded area in nearby Dallas County, where she reportedly hid overnight.
The following day, Rueckert turned herself in at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. During questioning by Marshfield detectives, she allegedly confessed to the murder and explained her motive. A handgun recovered from her vehicle was confirmed to be the weapon used in the shooting, according to local radio station KWTO.
Miller’s mother, Ann Kopp, spoke to CBS affiliate KCTV about the moment she learned her son had been murdered. She said she and her husband grew concerned when they couldn’t reach him and decided to go to his home.
“When we got to John’s house, the police department was already there,” Kopp recalled. “Madison’s mom was already there. Sergeant Neil had just pulled up. He wanted to talk to me. So I got in the car with him, and he said, ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your son was the victim of a homicide.’”
Kopp said she was devastated and confused by the reason authorities believe led Rueckert to take her son’s life.
“I couldn’t believe it was because she found messages from him to other women,” she said. “He hadn’t even cheated on her.”
Rueckert is expected to serve her full sentence in a Missouri state correctional facility, with no eligibility for parole for several decades.