KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The husband of a missing Northland woman bonded out of jail last night ahead of a preliminary hearing Friday, but the bond stimulations included supervised visits with his two boys.
Shon Pernice arrived to a 9 a.m. motions hearing in Clay County Court Friday. He would not speak on camera with NBC Action News but told KMBZ News Radio it felt good to be out of jail and clean-shaven without shackles.
Shon pleaded not guilty last month to two counts of endangering the welfare of his sons and threatening two neighbors.
The alleged incident happened in the late hours of July 4. Shon is accused of being intoxicated while he drove his children home from an Independence Day party and threatening a neighbor. According to an indictment issued later in July, that neighbor was the person who had earlier accused Shon of stealing a gun and later returning it, leading to
gun theft charges.
Shon’s wife, Renee Pernice, has been missing since Jan. 1. Shon’s charges, both in the first gun theft charge and the later charges from July 4, are not connected to Renee’s disappearance, but authorities have called him a person of interest in the case.
Clay County prosecutors announced in February they were proceeding with the case as a
death investigation.
In July, a Clay County judge gave Shon special conditions on a lowered bond. He is not to consume any alcohol, have any unsupervised visits with his children, or have any contact with the witnesses in the case in which he was jailed.
Custody of his two boys was granted to their maternal grandmother, Linda Lockwood, Renee Pernice's mother.
"We're trying to move ahead with the scenario of having the trial for the final guardianship,” Renee Pernice's father Rick Pretz said.
Pretz said the attorneys have not worked out who will supervise the visits.
"A true definition of that had to be established by Shon's attorney and our attorney, and that hasn't been done," said Pretz.
A judge granted Linda Lockwood temporary custody of the two children following Pernice's most recent arrest.
She's now seeking permanent custody.
In Friday's hearing, Shon said he wanted to attend Alcoholics Anonymous twice a week and try to get his job back in Saint Joseph, but being on house arrest, another term of his bond, makes that hard. Those requests were granted.
A Sept. 18 court date was set to determine if a venue change would be granted in the case.
