Columbia police arrest two more people in connection with 2017 murder case
Katie Greathouse
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia police officers arrested two more people in connection with a 2017 murder investigation on Thursday.
According to a news release, officers arrested David Adams, 44, and Julius Cureton, 37, both of Columbia. Police said they arrested both on suspicion of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and unlawful possession of a weapon.
Investigators identified them as suspects in the Dec. 11, 2017, death of Augustus Roberts. Police said Roberts was targeted and killed during a home invasion in the 1900 block of Lasso Circle. A Drug Enforcement Administration investigation alleged in 2019 that the homicide was tied to a drug trafficking scheme and that Roberts was selling “high-grade marijuana.”
Officers arrested Adams in the 3000 block of Paris Road and arrested Cureton near Rolling Hills Road and Pride Mountain Drive.
Jeffrey McWilliams, 33, is also a suspect in the case. In 2021, prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and armed criminal action. Online court records show he has a hearing scheduled for Sept. 2.
Charges have not yet been filed against Adams or Cureton.
A witness allegedly told police in 2017 that three masked men tried robbing the home in 2017. Police say the witness told them they escaped the home during the robbery and heard gunshots as they ran away. Investigators later found a U-Haul truck near the scene of the killing with hundreds of pounds of marijuana inside.
Roberts, the son of a northeast Missouri judge, was considered a part of a nationwide marijuana trafficking operation. Federal drug authorities arrested and charged members of the operation in the years following the killing, detailing a coast-to-coast business with dozens of defendants. Those included former Coffee Zone owner Osama Yanis and state marijuana lobbyist Eapen Thampy. The Department of Justice claimed the operation was headed up by people in Oregon and California. None of those involved in the marijuana operation have ever been charged with anything related to Roberts’ death.