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Kansas Slay Suspect Jeffrey Chapman Wanted to Erase 'Murder' Ink

Jeffrey Chapman asked the court to allow a tattoo artist into jail so jurors wouldn't see his shocking body art.
Image: Jeffery Chapman
Jeffrey Chapman.Kansas Dept. of Corrections

A Kansas slaying suspect wanted to save his neck by getting the tattoo he splashed across it — the word "murder" spelled backward — inked over in jail.

But county officials balked at Jeffrey Chapman's request for a personal needling session in lockup.

The dispute was laid out in court papers filed in Barton County this month. It turns out that all it took to resolve it was a piece of clothing.

"The parties reached an agreement that the defendant would wear a turtleneck," Lisa Taylor, spokeswoman for the Kansas Supreme Court's Office of Judicial Administration, said Wednesday.

A lawyer for Chapman did not return calls but said in court papers that his client's body art was not relevant to the case and would be "extremely prejudicial" if seen by jurors.

Chapman, 31, is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Damon Galyardt, 25, whose body was found in a roadside ditch in Great Bend in November 2011.

Image: Jeffery Chapman
Jeffrey Chapman.Kansas Dept. of Corrections
— Tracy Connor