Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Sedalia man has been charged after he was accused of stabbing a man in his stomach on Wednesday.

Samuel Storer, 43 was charged on Thursday in Pettis County with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He is being held at the Pettis County Jail on a $25,000 bond. A court date has not been scheduled.

A deputy wrote in the probable cause statement that law enforcement was called at 10:49 p.m. that night and found the victim with a stab wound in his stomach. The victim claimed he knocked on the door of a trailer and Storer stabbed him, the statement says.

The victim then punched out a window on the door after Storer closed it, the statement says.

The victim was flown to University Hospital. A witness at the scene allegedly corroborated the victim’s story, the statement says.  

Storer allegedly told deputies that the victim and witness came to the residence multiple times throughout the day and Storer told them to leave multiple times, the statement says. Storer claimed the victim first broke the window of the door and tried to force his way in, which led to Storer punching and stabbing the victim, the statement says.

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Olivia Hayes

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mid-Missouri homeless organizations are preparing to see an increased need as extreme low temperatures are expected over the weekend.

Maj. Nancy Powers, a Corps Officer with Columbia’s Salvation Army Harbor House, said Friday that the colder weather has already brought people to Harbor House with dangerous weather-related health problems.

“By the time they’re coming to us, they may have black fingertips or black toes,” Powers said. “Oftentimes their skin is red and cracking, that kind of thing.”

Harbor houses typically focus on families facing homelessness, but they will work with other local organizations, like Room at the Inn, on a referral basis to help with any overflow.

“We have cots so we can accommodate what we need to on cots,” Powers said. “We do screen everybody to make sure we don’t have any sexual predators, or anybody that would be dangerous with our kids.”

Powers said Harbor House’s non-resident day shelter opens at 6 a.m. and closes around the time other overnight shelters and organizations in town open up.

“They need to leave here by four o’clock to catch the bus to go there,” Powers said. “We encourage folks, get that bus so you have some place to go.”

However, families and Harbor House residents are able to stay 24 hours. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are served daily for residents, but lunch is open to members of the public.

“It’s really good that they’re here and they offer the services that they do,” said Melanie Mooney, a Harbor House resident.

Powers said the shelter needs more winter gear and clothing for its residents and community members in need.

“Boots, hats, gloves, scarves,” Powers said. “Adult coats, especially large sizes of adult coats, are really important.” 

John Trapp, with Columbia’s Room at the Inn, said 110 beds are available for people looking to get out of the cold overnight. Trapp also said Turning Point, located at Columbia’s United Methodist Church on Wilkes Boulevard, will be open overnight as a warming center to assist with any overflow.

Audrain County is expected to be one of the hardest hit areas by the extreme low temperatures. Ra’Vae Edwards-Moore, executive director for Audrain County’s Room at the Inn, said it will be open 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday with capacity for 16 people overnight.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The state is working with stakeholders to figure out how to implement restrictions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Missouri Department of Social Services said Friday.

The state was approved to adjust the SNAP program to exclude items like sodas, candy, packaged and prepared desserts and juice with less than 50% of vegetable or fruit juice.

Kim Buckman from Feeding Missouri said the organization hopes to be included in conversations with the state as it navigates how and what to restrict.

“We hope to work closely with the state, retailers, and partners to ensure efforts to support healthier outcomes are implemented in ways that protect access to food and strengthen the systems that communities of every size depend on,” Buckman wrote in an email.

She also emphasised the need for clarity with the new restrictions.

“Changes need to be clear, consistent, and practical so they don’t unintentionally reduce access to food or place added strain on local retailers — risking their ability to continue serving their communities,” Buckman said.

The earliest start date for the prohibition is Oct. 1, 2026.

California resident and SNAP recipient Regina Anderson said her five-year-old daughter could have a hard time switching juices.

“It’s not fair if you think about it because most juices are less than 50% juice,” Anderson said. “Unless you’re getting 100% apple juice or 100% orange juice. Not every kid likes apple juice or orange juice. My daughter like drinking the little Kool-Aid juices.”

Anderson also said she uses her SNAP dollars to bring cupcakes or ice cream into her daughter’s class when it’s her birthday to celebrate. She won’t be able to do that under the new restrictions.

Bryan Wolford, another California resident, said he was on a USDA commodities program as a child.

He said that while he sees the importance of the SNAP program, he thinks the program should have limits.

“Taxpayers, which I am and have been since I was 15, we should not be paying for these high sugar, high fat foods that are essentially poisoning our families and our Missouri kids,” Wolford said.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The judge in a lawsuit surrounding Missouri’s new redistricting proposal has opted to not rule on the case until collected signatures are verified.

Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh wrote in a Friday decision that People Not Politicians had submitted more than 300,000 signatures to Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to certify in their effort to get the new congressional map on the state ballot.

“Currently, to the court’s knowledge, no signatures have been officially accepted or rejected. Conceivably, this could be enough signatures to place the referendum on the ballot thereby mooting the issues presented in the case at bar,” Limbaugh wrote.

“Therefore, the court will hold this case in abeyance until the requisite number of signatures have been certified or up until enough signatures have been rejected so as to prevent plaintiffs’ referendum from appearing on the ballot. It is further ordered that Secretary Hoskins preserve all signatures filed with his office, whether those signatures are accepted or rejected, until further order by this court.

People Not Politicians issued a statement showing support for the judge’s decision.

“Judge Limbaugh recognized that the key issue right now is whether the submitted signatures are certified. No signatures have been accepted or rejected yet, and the court ordered that they all be preserved. We agree with the judge — let’s check the signatures,” People Not Politicians spokesperson Elsa Rainey told ABC 17 News in a statement.  

Hanaway on Friday also filed a motion in federal court to sanction People Not Politicians’ lawyers. Hanaway’s motion argues that the counsel should be sanctioned for suggesting to media outlets that the map should be frozen.

Arguments in the trial earlier this week included PNP claiming Hoskins failed to follow Missouri open records laws by not approving the referendum language. The state argued because the governor hadn’t signed the new congressional map into law during the initial submission of the language, he couldn’t approve it.

Hoskins and Attorney General Catherine Hanaway claimed on Thursday that the new map is cemented in state law.

A federal judge earlier this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state that sought to block the new map from appearing on the ballot.

Republican lawmakers had suggested redrawing lines sooner than the state’s typical period of every 10 years after it was requested by President Donald Trump ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Critics of the map have called it gerrymandering and if it is passed, it is expected to give Republicans an additional lawmaker to represent the state. The area at the center of the discussion is currently represented by Democratic Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A woman has been charged in Monroe County after she allegedly tried to make a child lie to authorities in order to protect her spouse who was accused of child molestation.

Jennifer Navarro, 34, of Paris, Missouri, was charged on Thursday with tampering with a victim in a felony prosecution. She is being held at the Monroe County Jail on a $50,000 bond. A bond hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Joseph Navarro, 39, of Paris, Missouri, was charged on Nov. 20 with second-degree child molestation and second-degree kidnapping. He is being held at the Monroe County Jail without bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 2.

Joseph Navarro was accused of repeatedly sexually abusing the victim over the summer through October, a probable cause statement says.

The statement filed in Jennifer Navarro’s case says after law enforcement started looking for Joseph Navarro, Jennifer Navarro had apparently called him to warn him that law enforcement was looking for him.

She then allegedly repeatedly told the victim to lie to authorities and tell them the assaults were a dream, the statement says.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A woman was arrested and charged after a trooper allegedly found 221 pounds of marijuana in her vehicle during a Thursday traffic stop on Interstate 70 in Montgomery County.

Briana Roberts, of Spanaway, Washington, was charged on Friday with first-degree drug trafficking and endangering the welfare of a child. She is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail. A court date has not been scheduled.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper wrote in the probable cause statement that he pulled over a 2025 Chrysler Pacifica with Utah plates after the driver drove it too close to a tractor-trailer and the trooper noticed the plates were expired.

The trooper noted that a child was in a booster seat and several recently purchased duffle bags were seen throughout the vehicle. The child was apparently not in the proper restraint and Roberts was brought to the trooper’s patrol car, the statement says. Roberts refused to allow the trooper to search the vehicle, but a search warrant was obtained and roughly 221 pounds of weed was found throughout the various duffle bags in the vehicle, the statement says.

Roberts allegedly told the trooper she was moving to Atlanta, Georgia, and gave the trooper a different Washington state address than what was listed on her driver’s license, the statement says.

She allegedly denied knowing about the weed in the car, court documents say.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Lincoln County man died in a crash Friday morning in Montgomery County, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report.

The crash happened at Route DD and Route E, north of Bellflower, at 10:45 a.m., the report says. The 76-year-old of Elsberry was declared dead at the scene.

The crash occurred as a 2015 Chevrolet 1500 – driven by the man – was headed westbound on Route E. The truck pulled into the path of a 1998 Western Star Conventional – driven by a 77-year-old Silex, Mo. man – headed northbound. The report says the tractor-trailer hit the truck on the driver’s side on Route DD.

The driver of the tractor-trailer went to Mercy Hospital in Troy, Mo., with minor injuries.

The truck driver’s body was brought to Schlanker Funeral Home in Montgomery City.

Both vehicles were totaled, and neither driver was wearing a seatbelt, according to the report.

Part of Route E was closed on Friday after the deadly crash, the sheriff’s office said. Troopers asked drivers to use alternate routes.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

An Arkansas electrical cooperative plans to build 60,000 square feet of warehouse, office and storage space on 8 acres of land in Boonville.

Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. Utility Solutions is building the equipment distribution center, according to a release from the economic development group Missouri Partnership. The company is investing $7 million in the project, which will create six new jobs, the release states.

The facility will include a 50,000-square-foot warehouse and office space, plus an additional 10,000 square feet of covered storage.

The Boonville location will be a regional distribution warehouse supporting utilities in five states. Boonville was chosen for its central location and available and affordable land, the release states.

“This new distribution center represents a significant investment in our city’s future, creating new jobs and strengthening our role as a prime location for expanding companies,” Boonville Mayor Ned Beach said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to a strong partnership that will deliver lasting benefits for Boonville and the entire region.”

Local construction company Coil will be the project’s lead contractor, according to the company COR Development, which is leading project design.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

ASHLAND, Mo. (KMIZ)

People looking to catch a break from the cold are encouraged to use the shuttle service for the “A Very Ashland Holiday” festival that is set to begin Friday evening.

The holiday festivities will be from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Downtown Ashland Business District.

According to the ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Team, temperatures will be steady in the low 30s Friday night. People attending the “A Very Ashland Holiday” festival should wear extra layers and take advantage of the shuttle service.

A free shuttle will run throughout the evening from the Southern Boone Primary/Elementary School parking lot, making stops at the following locations:

Downtown

Redbud and Henry Clay

Ashland Baptist Church

Southern Boone Library

Main Street

There will be holiday-inspired activities, entertainment and local businesses will participate, spanning multiple locations along Henry Clay, Broadway, Main Street, and the American Legion Hall. Some of the holiday-inspired features include:

Santa, Mrs. Claus & live reindeer (Multipli Credit Union, 5:30–7:30 PM)

Holiday crafts, cookies, hot chocolate, and giveaways

Carolers, story time, letter-writing to Santa

Fire truck displays & decorated Jeeps

Living Nativity (Ashland Baptist Church, 5–7 PM)

Horse-drawn carriage rides (American Legion area)

Gingerbread contest, photo ops, community mitten drive

Local shopping, maker booths, and food options throughout downtown

On Saturday, the City of Ashland will also be holding its annual Park Board Christmas Parade. Due to the Christmas parade, some streets along the route will be closed, according to a social media post from the Ashland Police Department.

The parade will begin at 6 p.m. at Southern Boone Elementary and the closed roadways will reopen once the final parade float passes.

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Matthew Sanders

Conservative political group Americans for Prosperity told ABC 17 News this week that Gov. Mike Kehoe is working with them on a plan that would phase out Missouri’s income tax.

Kehoe has been a vocal supporter of the idea for some time, telling ABC 17 shortly after his election that he supports getting rid of state income tax. It’s an idea that has already been tried in other states, so real-world models exist.

Income tax makes up a big chunk of state revenue that will have to come from other sources. One could be a tax on services that aren’t currently subject to sales tax.

Do you think phasing out state income tax is a good idea? Let us know by voting in the poll.

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