17-year-old charged with murder in fatal Facebook Marketplace meetup
Lucas Geisler
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia teenager was charged as an adult with murder, robbery and armed criminal action in a deadly Facebook Marketplace meetup.
Judge Tracy Gonzalez agreed to certify Mikel Jones, 17, as an adult in an alleged deadly robbery in southwest Columbia, minutes before charges were filed.
Columbia police believe he took part in a robbery set up through Facebook Marketplace that led to the death of Michael Ryan Burke on Ridgemont Court.
Jones was charged with second-degree (felony) murder, first-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action.
Three 18-year-old suspects — Alexis Baumann, of Hallsville, Kobe Aust and Joseph Crane — had already been charged as adults. Surveillance video places Jones with the three suspects the night Burke was killed, court documents claim.
Court documents filed in the case say that Baumann and the group arranged to buy a phone from Burke. The group had already met with and stolen from at least two other victims in the two days before the confrontation that led to Burke’s death, documents say. Those incidents took place on Claudell Lane and on Northampton Drive.
A Facebook account with the name Jones set up the exchange, according to a probable cause statement.
Baumann allegedly told officers that the juvenile suspect, later identified as Jones, shot Burke, took his iPhone, then sold it at an ecoATM at the Walmart on Conley Road.
Jones was in county custody on Tuesday without bond.