Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A man who fatally stabbed an intruder in his Franklin County home earlier this week said he didn't mean to kill his neighbor — a man he also considered a friend.
“We were both drinking,” said Mike Wieners, 55.
Wieners said by telephone that Eric M. Frazer, 38, started bashing up his home in the Robertsville area early Tuesday with an ax, demanding money and a ride to Arkansas.
Fearing for his life, Wieners said he agreed to take him. First, though, he told Frazer he needed to grab more beer from the kitchen for the long ride. Wieners said he also grabbed a knife from the stove top.
“I stuck him,” he said. “I didn't mean to kill him. I wasn't looking for that. I am not that type of person. But I am not going to let somebody take my life.”
Frazer fled in Wieners' vehicle and died later Tuesday at a hospital.
It was the second fatal incident Wieners was involved with in four months at his rural home in the 1800 block of Osage Parkway Drive. Wieners shot and killed another intruder in self-defense in a similar incident in February. He was not not charged in that case.
Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said detectives were looking at whether the incidents were just bad luck.
“Right now, he’s claiming self-defense, and what he has looks like self-defense, but we’re going to look into it a little more, obviously,” Toelke said.
Wieners sustained minor injuries to his arm and jaw during the most recent incident.
Police said they found Frazer in a vehicle in a ditch on Oak Grove Church Road. He was flown to Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur, where he died about 9:30 a.m.
The two men were neighbors in a community near Lake Arrowhead, about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis. They would party together, said Frazer's girlfriend, Cindie Spence.
"They always hung out," Spence said. "They were like best friends."
She said Frazer mowed Wieners' yard Monday night and later complained about him.
"Those two would always argue with each other," she said.
In the February incident, Wieners told police that he and Richard Wagnon, 60, of St. Clair, had quarreled over a woman they both knew and that Wagnon had entered his home with a revolver.
Deputies said that Wagnon’s body was found inside the front door and that a revolver was recovered at the scene.
Asked about that case Thursday, Wieners said Wagnon had threatened him but hesitated just long enough to lose the upper hand.
“He was going to shoot me,” Wieners said. “I grabbed ahold of the barrel and it went off and killed him.”
Wieners said he'd once lived with Wagnon for a few months when he needed a place to stay after a domestic dispute.