Category: kmiz-local-news

Erika McGuire

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Transportation has scheduled the demolition of the exit ramp from westbound Interstate 70 to Business Loop 70 in Columbia for this weekend.

The bridge demolition will require an extended single-lane closure with off-and-on full closures of eastbound I-70 between Route B and Highway 63 from 7 p.m. Friday until 6 a.m. Monday. MoDOT says drivers should expect up to 30-minute travel delays along I-70 all weekend.

Improve I-70 Project Manager, Jeff Gander said “there is four girders under this bridge and when we cut those loose and swing them out of the way, we can’t have traffic under it so those four times we will have a full closure of eastbound I-70 there are also other times we will have to close it while we are braking the concrete above the lanes,”

Gander added, “It’s not a very safe situation and the bridge is in pretty bad shape itself, its left hand exit which is not all bad but as you try to make that left hand exit it doesn’t have that deceleration lane and you’re kinda going up a hill and around a curve so there was a lot of accidents associated with this flyover overpass,”

According to Gander, the bridge will be removed by using jackhammers, concrete saws, and cutting torches instead of explosives since there is too much traffic under the bridge.

Drivers are encouraged to plan ahead and use alternate routes when possible.

A traffic shift is also planned for Friday on Highway 63. MoDOT says it has finished construction of the southbound Highway 63 bridge for the Conley Rd. underpass and will switch traffic on Highway 63 to the new bridge to allow for the construction of the northbound bridge.

MoDOT is asking drivers to be alert and use caution crews will remove pavement markings and re-stripe the road between the Broadway overpass and Conley Rd. underpass.

The demolition is part MoDOT’s Improve I-70 project, which includes expanding I-70 to three lanes in each direction from Columbia to Kingdom City. This phase costs $405 million and includes new pavement on all three lanes. Contractors will also make interchange improvements at Highway 63 and Highway 54.

“We paved the median of a seven mile section of the rural area between Columbia and Kingdom City, in about a month we’re gunna put the eastbound traffic on that we just paved so we can finished out rest the lanes of the eastbound side,” Gander said.

Once the demolition is complete, MoDOT plans to build a roundabout and a new eastbound I-70 exit ramp to Business Loop 70. The project will include a new collector-distributor road, designed to help drivers merge more safely onto I-70 westbound from Business Loop 70.

Missouri lawmakers approved $2.8 billion in Missouri’s fiscal 2024 budget to fund the project that will reconstruct nearly 200 miles of I-70 from Blue Springs to Wentzville.

According to MoDOT’s January update, construction starts this spring on a new northbound Highway 63 flyover ramp to westbound I-70 in Columbia, along with a new northbound Highway 63 bridge between I-70 and Broadway.

Gander said, “the fly over bridge we will be building  for norhtbound 63 to westbound 70, thats gunna take off just south of the connector and fly over all lanes of i-70 and touch back just to the east of where we’re at right now,”

MoDOT also plans to begin rebuilding concrete pavement on the existing eastbound I-70 lanes between Calloway County routes J and M.

This summer, work will continue with paving a third lane of I-70 between Paris Road and Highway 63, and early interchange work will begin at the I-70/Highway 54 interchange in Kingdom City.

Work on the first phase of the project got underway last year and Gander said despite challenges posed by Missouri’s winter weather, the project remains on track for completion by late 2027 and is within its $405 million budget.

According to Gander pieces of the eight projects underway in Mid-Missouri will open before the demolition of the connector bridge.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Editor’s Note: The charges the defendant pleaded guilty to have been corrected.

A Columbia man accused in the fatal shooting of a man in June 2023 on Dove Drive has pleaded guilty to a lesser murder charge.

Deazes Turner, 22, appeared in court via Zoom from the Cooper County Jail and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Thursday. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison. He was previously charged with first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon.

Updated court documents say Turner, Deljuan Turner and Alqueze Jones shot and killed Deshon Houston, 33, on June 26, 2023, from a white 2017 Ford Explorer driven by Ja’Shaun Barney; while Bryton Allen also shot at Houston from an Acura MDX driven by Damarkus Williams. Court documents filed on Wednesday say a second man was also shot on that day.

Investigators linked seven suspects to the shooting through witness descriptions of two vehicles and data from a stolen SUV that crashed while fleeing the scene. Both sides had more than 100 witnesses ready to go for this case if it went to trial.

On June 26, 2023, police found Houston shot in the head outside a home in the 3200 block of Dove Drive. Witnesses reported seeing the gunmen firing at Houston and another man through the sunroof of one of the vehicles. 

Officers later found a crashed Ford Explorer with bullet holes but couldn’t find those inside. Deazes Turner, Deljuan Turner and Jones were later found in Oklahoma and arrested June 2024. 

Several men have taken plea deals in the shooting. Deljuan Turner pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Jones, 21, pleaded guilty that same month to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Allen, 22, pleaded guilty in July 2024 to second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon and was sentenced to 20 years. He was also sentenced to four years in prison in an unrelated case where he pleaded guilty to resisting arrest in 2021.

Barney, 20, is charged with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon and first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle. He is being held at the Boone County Jail without bond and has a hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, June 5.

Williams, 20, is charged with first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon. He is being held at the Boone County Jail and has a hearing scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday, April 28.

Jajuan Crockett, 23, is charged with first-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, accessory to stealing, stealing more than $750 and tampering with evidence. A jury trial is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 10. He is being held in the Missouri Department of Corrections and is serving a six-year sentence in an unrelated case.

All of the men accused were previously charged with first-degree murder.

ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A young boy is dead, while a man and a girl are in critical condition after a gas explosion damaged multiple homes in Lexington, Missouri, according to a report from KMBC.

Authorities say a subcontractor working on a fiber optic line accidentally hit a gas main last night.

The explosion happened when a man inside the home and lit a cigarette, which ignited the gas. The family of the man inside the home says he flipped a light switch, which caused the explosion. The cause is under investigation.

Three people were inside the home at the time. A man suffered intense burns and was airlifted to a Kansas City hospital, where he is now on a ventilator.

The man’s son died in the explosion, and his daughter was brought to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and is also on a ventilator.

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A man was arrested following a more-than-10-hour standoff Friday at an apartment complex in West Columbia.

A standoff occurred as Ash Street Place Apartments, with its entrance just west of Stadium Boulevard, following a “weapons incident” around 8:30 a.m. Police said at 12:48 p.m. that a man had threatened people with a weapon before going inside his residence.

Columbia Police Department spokesman Brian McNeill said at the scene around 7 p.m. that a man was in custody and taken to an area hospital for a precautionary screening. Only one person was involved.

Police later identified the man in a Friday evening press release as Michael Whited, 59, of Columbia. He was arrested on suspicion of two counts of fourth-degree assault, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest.

Whited did not appear on the Boone County Jail’s online roster on Friday night. Charges have yet to appear on Casenet.

Several loud pops coming from gas canisters occurred shortly after 5 p.m. CPD Assistant Chief Paul Dickinson clarified to ABC 17 News around 5:50 p.m. that gas cans were deployed.

Smoke was seen in an area near the apartment at 5:23 p.m. and a drone was used around 5:30 p.m. More than 10 Columbia police officers were on the scene, along with officers with sniper rifles and an armored vehicle.

A K-9 was also on the scene and police were seen wearing gas masks throughout the later half of the standoff.

Crime scene tape went up about 12:10 p.m. Friday.

Parent whose child is enrolled at a nearby daycare, KinderCare, told ABC 17 News that she was not able to pick up her child on Friday afternoon as the daycare was on lockdown. ABC 17 News reached out to the daycare, but has not yet heard back.

A neighbor told an ABC 17 News reporter that police are regularly seen in the complex for fire alarms, but indicated Friday afternoon’s response was much larger than usual.

This is a developing story.