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Edwardsville sits on the low north bank of the slow flowing Kansas River west of Kansas City. A small, quiet town on the outer edge of the urban sprawl with six churches and two baseball diamonds, a shopping mall a few miles down the interstate. It's about as Middle American as towns come these days, with family businesses, local political squabbles -- a place where everyone knows everyone else.So when Donna Ozuna and her daughter Carmen moved to 94th Street, Stephanie Eickhoff, who lived across the way in an 80-year-old white A-frame house, remembers baking a batch of Valentine cupcakes in February 1999 to welcome them. Ozuna, a short, stocky woman with intense eyes and black hair streaked with gray, was neither rude nor friendly. She thanked Stephanie for the goodies but didn't invite her inside. Ozuna claimed she had moved to town to escape the noise and kids from the school near her home in Kansas City. But it didn't take long for people to get the feeling that she was different -- more guarded and easily riled than most folks in the neighborhood.
Ozuna seemed obsessive about her privacy and her property, cranky when kids played in the street, set foot in her yard or rode their bikes too close to her lawn. She guarded her brick ranch house as if it were a castle under siege. Over time, neighbors say, relationships went from cool to downright frosty, and small encounters escalated into rows. They claim she complained to authorities about their dogs, shouted obscenities when someone cut through her yard, and routinely yelled at neighborhood children.
Trouble started, Lesli Trout says, almost as soon as she and her husband, Jesse, a heavy-equipment mechanic, moved into a house nearby. One day their 13 -year-old son, Jeremy, came home looking scared and upset. He'd been out riding his bike and stopped at the edge of the Ozunas' yard. At that point, the Trouts say, Carmen stormed o t of the house, told Jeremy to keep out of their yard and threatened him.
When a visibly upset Jeremy told her what happened, Lesli thought there must be some misunderstanding. "I walked over to apologize for him." Instead, she says, she encountered a still-agitated Carmen, who told her to keep Jeremy off her property or she'd sic her dogs on him.
Jesse would later try to smooth things over with the Ozunas as well. "I want to be friendly with my neighbors," he said. "I met Donna halfway in the street and apologized for anything my children may have done. She never spoke to me or looked at me the whole time." Things deteriorated and recriminations flew back and forth.
At first, folks around town characterized the tension and bad feelings as "a neighborhood feud." It happens from time to time in neighborhoods every where, and usually runs its course into a silent stand off. But Lesli Trout says that's not what happened here. "It wasn't a feud. It was one-sided. Her against everyone else."
And, indeed, Ozuna's relationships with her neighbors were becoming more strained and hostile.
Fourth of July barbecues at Jim and Stephanie Eickhoff 's home are legendary in Edwardsville. The county lawman and his wife had always been active in local affairs, and had a wide circle of friends. On Independence Day, 2001, about 70 people -- family, friends, city officials -- gathered on the five-acre property for the annual celebration. Adults and kids alike swam and played games in the 26' x 14' inground pool, danced to tunes played by a local DJ, and dined on Kansas City barbecue. Just after sundown, the night lit up with sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets and Roman candles.
The Ozunas had not been invited this year, and perhaps that perceived slight set the stage for what happened next. When sparks from a Roman candle landed on her side of the street, party-goers say Ozuna charged out and began screaming. People tried to cool her down, but failed.
"Donna, it's the Fourth of July," Jesse Trout told her. "Can we give it a break for just one day?"
Ozuna's response, neighbors say, was to threaten to get a gun and shoot him. She then turned and headed back to her house. The police were called -- and Ozuna and her daughter were arrested for making criminal threats.
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