A Parsons woman pleaded this week to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and another felony for her role in the death of a Parsons man in 2023. She will be sentenced in April.
Kimberly Jean Nibarger, 48, was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and first-degree murder in Neosho County District Court. Her husband, Clint Nibarger, faces the same charges. He pleaded to lesser charges in his case — second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder — but decided to change attorneys before sentencing. He will return to court on March 19 for a status hearing.
The Nibargers are accused in the fatal shooting of Dakota Patton. Patton was last seen alive with the Nibargers — her name was Kimberly Thomas at the time — on April 25, 2023, at Pete’s in Parsons. Thomas and Nibarger wed soon after.
Patton’s body was found on the south side of 20th Road between Xavier and Wallace roads in Neosho County on May 8, 2023. Clint Nibarger told a friend in Hollister, Missouri, that he shot Patton in the face.
On Monday, Kimberly Nibarger was in court with her attorney, Sue DeVoe.
The plea required Nibarger to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, a level two felony, and obstructing apprehension, a lower-level felony. At sentencing, DeVoe and the Kansas Attorney General’s Office agreed to recommend the standard sentence based on Kansas Sentencing Guidelines. The two counts, conspiracy and obstruction, will be served consecutively, or back to back. The attorneys will also recommend that Nibarger serve concurrently, or at the same time, any sentence imposed in an older Oklahoma case.
Nibarger could face up to 60 months in prison in Oklahoma for child abuse if the Oklahoma judge accepts the recommendation.
In May 2015, Nibarger pleaded to a felony child abuse charge in Oklahoma, according to filings in the case. Her sentencing was deferred for 10 years. However, she had two years of supervision during that time and was to complete 40 hours of community service and attend parenting classes.
The case file said that Nibarger, then Thomas, in 2014 had her stepson get out of the car in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, and she drove off out of sight of him.
See MURDER, Page 2.
She reports in the plea that she returned immediately, but her stepson had already summoned help from a neighbor and was frightened.
The Lincoln County district attorney filed a motion to accelerate the deferred sentencing, which wasn’t supposed to happen until May this year.
No court date has been scheduled in the Oklahoma case.
Nibarger will be sentenced in Erie on April 16.
She agrees in her Neosho County plea to serve the middle number of months in Kansas Sentencing Guidelines. This range is 9.75 years to 39 years, depending on her criminal history, for conspiracy plus eight months for obstruction. She also agrees to testify against her husband.
Nibarger remains jailed.
