Month: January 2026

Haley Swaino

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Installation of the Safe Haven Baby Box began Monday at the Cole County EMS Headquarters in downtown Jefferson City, Chief Eric Hoy said.

The device is expected to be installed by the end of the week, but people will not be able to drop off infants until sometime in February, Hoy said. The box is being put in a wall on the building’s east side, behind the engine truck garages. People can access it from East McCarty Street.

GBH Builders Inc. in Jefferson City is the contractor installing the device.

Once installation is complete, Hoy said the Safe Haven Baby Box requires 30 days of testing and a state inspection.

“There’s great public support for this project, so it’s nice to see it cross the finish line,” Hoy said.

The original goal was to have the device installed by fall 2025, but funding gaps and installation changes set back the project.

The community raised nearly $28,000 for the baby box, but Hoy said construction costs left a $4,900 deficit after the state did not approve the original location the county proposed for the box because it was up a set of stairs.

Few exterior walls on the EMS headquarters met all the state’s requirements for baby box installation. The location that was approved is a three-story, weight-bearing brick wall. Hoy said that made installation more expensive.

The county decided to cover the installation cost of the device and then seek reimbursement from the state.

The Cole County Commission agreed to a plan in September to spend EMS funds upfront to cover the $4,900 construction cost gap that had stalled installation for months.

Two years after the Jefferson City Public Safety Committee began discussing the implementation of a box after a baby was left in a Walmart bag behind a shed in Maries County, Cole County is joining at least nine other Missouri locations to have a Safe Haven Baby Box.

The baby box will allow people to safely drop off infants instead of abandoning them.

“We did elect the option that there is some remote camera monitoring,” Hoy said. “So we will have 24/7 access to see what is in the device.”

He said the cameras will not capture anyone outside, keeping the identity of those surrendering a baby anonymous.

The device will not be available or accessible to the public until a formal announcement and presentation in February, Hoy said. It will be locked for training and inspection.

In the meantime, people experiencing a crisis can safely surrender a newborn by dialing 911 or at any staffed EMS, police or fire station.

Click here to follow the original article.

Olivia Hayes

EDITOR’S NOTE: Harry Adrian IV is no longer working for MoDOT.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The former state safety coordinator for the Missouri Department of Transportation, who was accused of pulling out a gun during a road-rage incident in September, pleaded guilty Tuesday in an agreement with the state.

Harry Adrian IV, of Tuscumbia, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving. He had been charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon; his charge was reduced in December.

“It was from the start, the situation where we knew that the individuals involved were either lying or just wrong,” said Ben Faber, Adrian’s lawyer. “It doesn’t really matter to us which one. What we know is that Mr. Adrian did not do what they said he did, as he’s maintained from the beginning.”

The probable cause statement says Adrian was accused by two people of pulling out a gun and pointing it at them during a road-rage incident around 3 p.m. Sept. 22. A deputy wrote that he stopped Adrian’s vehicle while he was following the alleged victim’s vehicle in the 3000 block of Highway 54 East in Cole County.

Victim impact statements were read in court Tuesday from William Tannehill and Andres Rios.

Both men maintained their claims that Adrian pointed a gun at them while in his car during a road rage incident, stating Adrian’s actions felt intentional.

“It felt like we were being hunted,” Tannehill’s statement read. “He cut us off repeatedly, followed us closely, and married a mirror to every attempt we made to defend ourselves.”

Tannehill wrote that they tried to drive away from Adrian, but their attempts were unsuccessful.

“No matter what I did, changing speed, changing lanes, the defendant stayed with us,” Tannehill wrote. “The situation became increasingly dangerous and there was no safe exit. I believed that we could be shot or forced off the road. That fear was real and immediate.”

Both men wrote about their disappointment with Adrian’s charge being reduced. Rios said the move by the prosecutor’s office made them feel dismissed.

“Learning that this incident had been reduced to a minor traffic offense was devastating. It made me feel as though the terror I experienced and the lasting emotional harm was being dismissed as insignificant,” Rios said.

In a statement to ABC 17 News, Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson said his office condemns any acts or threats of violence, especially those involving weapons, but that the evidence was lacking in this case.

“As prosecutors, we are required to prove criminal cases beyond a reasonable doubt, and that is an extremely high hurdle to clear. In this case, we obtained further evidence after the initial filing of charges that created doubt to the point that we were unable to proceed with the prosecution on charges of assault and unlawful use of a weapon,” Thompson wrote.

Tannehill said in his statement to the court that he and Rios provided a photo to officials of Adrian’s license plate taken during the incident that showed him holding a phone, but that there was more to it.

When he was pulled over by deputies on the day of the incident, Adrian allegedly told law enforcement that he was involved in a road-rage incident, but claimed he held a cellphone instead of a gun, the probable cause statement says. Deputies found a handgun in Adrian’s Ford F-250, the statement says.

“We never claimed that the photograph showed the gun. The firearm was displayed earlier in the incident, before that photograph was taken,” Tannehill wrote. “I was not given an opportunity to explain how the photograph, the alleged statement and the firearm fit together as part of this escalating incident.”

Tannehill and Rios believe that Adrian received preferential treatment.

“The outcome feels disconnected from both the seriousness of the conduct and the experience of the victims. I submit the statements so the court understands not only what occurred that day, but also the profound concern I have about how this case has been handled,” Tannehill wrote.

Faber said he was confident the case would have the outcome it did.

“Whether it was after a jury trial or protracted litigation, we were confident that the case was going to be that the gun charge was going to be dismissed,” Faber said.

Faber noted inconsistencies in Tannehill’s and Rios’ story.

“They made a police report, and it appears that they dug in their heels. They couldn’t keep their facts straight over time, or at the time, but that’s fine, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. Everyone’s entitled to be wrong,” Faber said.

Adrian will have one year of court-supervised probation.

Click here to follow the original article.

Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Nearly 1,000 electric meters went dark in Columbia on Tuesday morning, according to the Columbia Water and Light outage map.

The outages appeared to be clustered along Stadium Boulevard, Route E and West Broadway at about 11:30 a.m. Emergency dispatchers warned of traffic backups in the area of Stadium Boulevard and Worley Street because of traffic lights that didn’t have power.

The outage map showed 975 customers without power in 25 outages. The outage hit 7,141 meters at its height after a line tripped during maintenance at a substation, a Water and Light spokesperson said.

All power had been restored by 12:11 p.m.

Click here to follow the original article.