Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man who was convicted of murder in the 2022 death of a woman near the Interstate 70/Highway 63 connector in Columbia had his appeal sent back to a circuit court.

Jessie Williams, 33, was found guilty by a jury on May 16, 2024, of second-degree murder in the October 2022 death of Kaylen Schmit. He is accused of pushing Schmit off the Highway 63 bridge near Clark Lane. Schmit, 24, fell 38 feet into a wooded area and died hours later at a hospital.

He was sentenced to life in prison on July 29, 2024, and appealed the decision. The court came to its conclusion on Feb. 24, but the opinion was published on Wednesday.

The appellate court ruled that the circuit court did not make an error in overruling Williams’ attempt to suppress redacted video. The court did rule, however, that the circuit court made a clerical error in logging Williams’ life sentence as “999 years.”  

Williams is being held at Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, Missouri.

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Camryn Payne

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri Faculty Council voted to approve an artificial intelligence use scale policy.

According to council documents, MU educators are responsible for labeling graded assignments and assessments on a level from zero to three.

Assignments where an instructor allows no AI use are considered a “Level Zero,” but “Level Three” assignments would be assignments where instructors are fine with students using AI to help on larger tasks.

The policy is intended to clearly communicate expectations for the appropriate use of AI in coursework. MU educators to retain the authority to determine whether AI use is permitted, restricted or encouraged in their courses and assignments.

AI use levels will ultimately remain up to each instructor, according to documents used in previous reporting.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Centralia man pleaded guilty to three felonies for a drunken October 2024 crash that killed a man.

Nathan Timpe pleaded guilty on Wednesday to driving while intoxicated that caused the death of another and two counts of DWI causing serious injury.

He was sentenced to 120 days of shock incarceration and can get probation at the end of it. He faces a 10-year prison sentence if he fails to complete the program or violates probation.

Timpe crashed his Jeep Wrangler in 2024 and had a blood alcohol content of .109, court documents in previous reporting say.

Riley Pipes, 19, was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the Jeep. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Ryan Shiner

Steven Wolfe

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Phelps County man was arrested and charged after he allegedly yanked off the skin from a woman’s neck on Monday.

Steven Wolfe, 25, of Rolla, was charged on Wednesday in Phelps County with first-degree assault. He is being held at the Phelps County Jail on a $250,000 bond. A court date has not been scheduled.

The probable cause statement says police were called around 6 p.m. Monday for a report of an assault.

The statement says the victim made dinner for Wolfe and another resident and Wolfe became upset because he claimed the macaroni and cheese “belonged to him.”

Wolfe allegedly pulled on the victim’s throat, where she had recently had a new tattoo, and left a deep cut, the statement says. Police wrote when they arrived, there “was a copious amount of blood down the front” of the victim’s chest.

Police described the injury as being 3-inches tall “and stretching the entire length of her throat.”

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Ryan Shiner

Editor’s note: Faup’s age was corrected. A source’s error initially listed a different age.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia city employee has been accused of stealing, according to a Thursday press release from the Columbia Police Department.

City Parking Manager James Faup, 38, was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of felony stealing and misdemeanor stealing, according to the release. Faup appeared on the Boone County Jail’s online roster on Thursday afternoon. Information on the jail’s website say he was released on bond. Charges have not yet appeared on Casenet.

The release says CPD received a tip on Tuesday about someone wearing a Public Works uniform “who was exchanging a large amount of coins at a local business.”

Faup allegedly took coins from parking meters and exchanged them for paper money “for personal use,” the release says. Police wrote that Faup is no longer employed with the city, though he still appears on the city’s website.

A Public Works spokesman said the could not comment on an active investigation.

Check back for updates.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Cole County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Thursday press release that a bus driver was accused of assaulting a student on a bus on Wednesday morning.

The release says a Blair Oaks school resource officer was called by the district’s superintendent “in reference to an alleged assault that occurred on a school bus. The assault was allegedly committed on a bus, by a bus driver, against a juvenile student.”

The bus driver was not named, though the sheriff’s office said in the release that they are accused of fourth-degree assault.

The district had no comment on the matter on Thursday. Superintendent Ben Meldrum said the district uses Durham Transportation Services for its bus services. ABC 17 News has reached out to Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson.

A spokesperson with the bus company told ABC 17 News in an email that the driver was put on leave before being fired.

“We can confirm that we received a report regarding an incident involving our driver and a student and are cooperating fully with law enforcement on their investigation,” Summit School Services spokeswoman Anna Lam wrote. “We take the safety of our students very seriously, and upon learning of the incident, placed the driver on administrative leave and then terminated the employment of the driver.”

Check back for updates.

Press Release 4-2-26 -Fourth Degree AssaultDownload

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone County firefighters rescued a father and daughter who were stranded on top of a pickup truck in floodwater on Thursday.

The truck was stranded in water at Perche Creek on Akeman Bridge Road north of Columbia, Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp said. Emergency radio traffic indicated the vehicle was almost fully submerged.

Crews were dispatched around 1:49 p.m. for a vehicle in floodwater. The two were rescued shortly before 2:30 p.m., and the scene was cleared just before 3 p.m.

Boone County Fire Lt. Ryan Benedict said the truck had been swept about 100 yards off the road.

“That’s one of the reasons why you don’t drive in floodwater,” Benedict said. “Because you don’t know where the road’s at and so even though the water on top of the road isn’t that deep, you know, you drive off the side of the roadway, and it’ll consume your vehicle very quickly,”

The water was over 3 feet deep when they were rescued.

“It’s pretty dangerous whenever you get into floodwater, just because it’s extremely unpredictable,” Benedict said. “You don’t know what’s going on on the roadway underneath you. You know, that’s why we always advise people not to even walk in flood water, let alone drive in it.” 

Officials deployed three rescuers in the water wearing personal flotation devices to reach the victims.

Franky Zuno was on his way to drop off his daughter, Zaira Zuno, at a dentist appointment when their route took an unexpected turn. The pair said they had originally planned to go a different way, but Google Maps directed them onto West Akeman Bridge Road.

“We saw it was flooded. My dad tried to turn around and thought a little water wouldn’t hurt,” Zaira said. “He started to back up, but the current was really, really strong, and it took the back end,”

Both Franky and Zaira recalled the moment as frightening. Franky said as the situation unfolded, he tried to reassure his daughter that everything would be okay.

The two said they had no cell service to call for help. Fortunately, a driver came by and noticed them struggling. That person then drove to an area with better reception to call for help for the father and daughter.

Zaira said a tip she learned on TikTok helped her act quickly and escape the truck before it was fully submerged.

“Immediately, as soon as the water started coming into the truck, I put the window down and I was like, ‘ Dad, we got to get out and so we climbed to the top’,” she said.

Franky Zuno, the truck’s owner, said firefighters told him the truck could remain there for several days before being towed because of more rain in the forecast.

The flooding occurred after storms dumped inches of rain on Mid-Missouri between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. More storms are expected Thursday night and again Friday.

Flooding also prompted a rescue near Versailles. A teen girl was rescued after clinging to a small stream 30 yards downstream from a low-water crossing on Ritchie Road, the Gravois Fire Protection District reported.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The final suspect with a pending case for a deadly north Columbia shooting pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and unlawful weapons offense.

Ja’Shaun Barney, 21, of Columbia, pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. Judge Joshua Devine gave Barney 15 years in prison for the weapons charge and 10 years in prison for the conspiracy charge, which will run concurrently.

Barney and another suspect, Damarkus Williams, were driving two separate vehicles on June 26, 2023, while passengers in the vehicles shot at the victim, Deshon Houston, and targeted another individual, Elijah Fox-Brown outside a home on Dove Drive. Houston died in the shooting.

Assistant prosecutor Tony Gonzalez said in court that Barney will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he becomes eligible for parole. He is expected to be transported from the Boone County Jail to the Missouri Department of Corrections within the next few days.

The plea and sentence on Thursday puts an end to the nearly three-year long court process stemming from Houston’s death.

Court documents allege Barney was driving a vehicle while Deazes Turner, Deljuan Turner and Alqueze Jones shot at Houston in June 2023. Williams was allegedly behind the wheel of another vehicle while Bryton Allen also fired at Houston.

Williams, 21, was sentenced to 10 years at the Missouri Department of Corrections for a guilty plea in November to second-degree conspiracy to commit murder, according to previous reporting.

Turner, 22, was sentenced to 21 years in prison; Jones, 22, was sentenced to the same amount of time, and both were charged with second-degree murder.

Allen, 22, was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon. He was also sentenced to four years in prison for an unrelated case that involved resisting arrest in 2021.

Jajuan Crockett pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder, tampering with a motor vehicle, two counts of stealing and one count of tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Mexico, Missouri, man was arrested Wednesday night after he allegedly flipped an SUV while drunk and high.

The Mexico Department of Public Safety says officers arrested a 39-year-old man after he drove a Cadillac SUV straight on a curve in the 4800 block of Clark Street, went about a tenth of a mile off the road, hit an embankment, and flipped end over end for about another tenth of a mile before the vehicle came to rest on its roof.

The driver and his 32-year-old passenger, also of Mexico, got out of the SUV with little help and were taken by ambulance to University Hospital, police say.

Witnesses reportedly told officers that the SUV was driving recklessly and speeding just before the crash. Mexico police say they suspect the driver had been drinking and using marijuana.

Charges had not been filed in online court records as of Thursday morning.

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Madison Stuerman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Thousands of people in Mid-Missouri were without power on Thursday morning.

Columbia Water and Light shared on X at 8 a.m. that an electrical outage was affecting 1,200 customers in south Columbia.

Matt Nestor, a spokesperson for the department, said a tree fell on power lines at Oak Lawn Drive. Crews were working to clear debris before replacing the lines. Power was restored for some customers at 9:20 a.m. It was adjusted to 256 customers without power.

As of 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Ameren was reporting 763 customers without power. The online map showed two clusters, one near Huntsville and another near Eldon.

Both outages were reported at 7:20 a.m. according to Ameren. The cause of the outage was still being assessed by crews assigned to the area. Ameren estimated power to be restored around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Westran Fire Protection District shared on Facebook that a power pole caught fire in Huntsville. Photos show crews on South Main Street right near the city hall building.

An Ameren spokesperson said a power pole in Eldon was hit by lightning, causing the outage for about 400 customers at its peak.

Co-Mo Electric Cooperative, Inc. reported on Thursday morning that 735 members were without power in Morgan, Benton and Cooper counties. According to a Facebook post, these outages were caused by storms that passed through on Thursday morning.

According to the Co-Mo Connect outage map, the majority of those without power are in Benton County. The map states the outage was reported around 4:15 a.m.

A spokesperson for Co-Mo Electric Cooperative said as of 9:30 a.m., the outages were restored after a pole was replaced.

ABC 17 News has reached out for more information.

This is a developing story.

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