Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Court filings from Thursday show a Moniteau County dump truck driver is arguing he should be given immunity in a wrongful death case involving a crash.

The parents of Deborah Kay Coville filed a wrongful death lawsuit against John Kendrick and Moniteau County on Aug. 29 after Coville died from injuries she suffered in a crash on Aug. 5.

The petition alleges that Kendrick did not stop at a stop sign or yield to Coville’s Chevy Lumina as she drove eastbound on Lookout Trail. A Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report says the driver of the dump truck failed to yield to the Chevrolet.

Both drivers wore seatbelts in the crash, the report says. Coville was flown to University Hospital with serious injuries that day and later died on Aug. 12, the petition says.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday after Coville’s parents – Bobby and Suzanne Muprhy – filed for a change of venue on Oct. 3.

A filing from Thursday argues that Kendrick should be dismissed from the case because he is a public employee and is entitled to protection for “discretionary” acts. The petition accuses Kendrick of negligence, which Kendrick’s attorney alleges is a claim included within official immunity protections for public employees.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Jefferson City man accused of shooting and killing two women last week was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday.

Michael Davis, 40, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and a single count of unlawful use of a weapon in the deaths of Shawna Davis, 39, and Sofie Mulcahey, 31. Michael Davis is being held at the Cole County Jail without bond.

An entry of appearance was filed for Davis on Thursday. His next court date has not been announced.

Two women were found with gunshot wounds inside a vehicle in a wooded on Oct. 7 in the 900 block of Cordell Street, along with 30 shell casings. They had life-threatening injuries and were brought to University Hospital.

A witness allegedly described seeing a woman arguing with Davis and Davis allegedly pulled out a long gun, according to court documents in previous reporting. The witness did not see shots being fired, but they heard several shots in a row, the statement says.

Davis allegedly gave the witness keys to a gun safe and apologized, court documents say.

Police wrote that Davis said he thought the first victim was being forced into a vehicle by the second victim and fired several rounds at the car.

A second witness is cited in the probable cause statement as hearing an argument between the first victim and Davis during a phone call. He allegedly heard the argument while the second victim was on the phone with “Victim 1.”

“Victim 1” could allegedly be heard telling Davis “you have the gun case open; you are loading the gun while we are arguing,” the probable cause statement says.

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Alison Patton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

People Not Politicians’ lawyer claims a referendum on the new congressional map passed by the Missouri legislature is protected under state law.

This comes after Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filed a lawsuit in a federal court on Wednesday to block the referendum from getting on the November 2026 ballot.

The new congressional map is likely to cut out a Missouri Democrat from the U.S. House of Representatives. Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the map into law Sept. 28, labeling it “Missouri First.”

Missouri is one of several red states where President Donald Trump has pushed Republican-friendly redistricting plans to boost the party’s House majority.

Attorney Chuck Hatfield, who is representing the group, said the legal battle hinges on the words “An act of the General Assembly,” which are written in the bill authorising the “Missouri First” map and in the referendum law.

Hanaway argues in the lawsuit that the U.S. Constitution gives the Missouri legislature the sole power to redistrict the state, and the referendum takes away that power.

“The Constitution entrusts congressional redistricting to the people’s elected legislature, not to activist organizations bankrolled by undisclosed donors,” Hanaway wrote in a statement released Wednesday. “If allowed to proceed, this effort would destroy faith in our elections and set a dangerous precedent where outside interests could override constitutional order.”

Hatfield said he’s confident the court will side with People Not Politicians.

“Federal judges take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and we expect them to do that,” Hatfield said. “I think when we get our day in court and have the opportunity to lay out the arguments, they’re going to see that the attorney general is wrong.” 

The Attorney General Office wrote in an email Thursday that this lawsuit keeps restricting in the hands of elected officials.

“The Missouri Constitution and the U.S. Constitution vest the authority for congressional redistricting in the General Assembly, not activist organizations funded by outside interests,” the Attorney General’s Office wrote in an email.

Secretary of State Denny Hoskins approved People Not Politicians’ petition for circulation this week after initially rejecting the forms submitted last month. Hoskins said in his approval that signatures gathered earlier are no longer valid — something People Not Politicians claims is not correct.

Federal Judge Zachary Bluestone, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in May, is set to hear the case.

The state is asking the court for a hearing on or before Nov. 15, and a preliminary injunction to stop the referendum in its tracks.

Several lawsuits have been filed to overturn the new congressional district map.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) –

Two Hallsville School District staff members have resigned from the district after a month of paid leave over posts they shared about Charlie Kirk’s death.

Anthony Plogger and Kayla Lewis were suspended with pay for sharing posts about Kirk from a page called “So Informed.” The post expressed a lack of empathy for Kirk because of his past statements.

Kirk was a conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA — an organization that sought to win young adults over to conservative politics. He was killed by a sniper during a speaking event at a university in Utah.

Since his death, Kirk’s allies have encouraged conservatives to expose social media posts critical of Kirk or celebrating his death.

School board president Craig Stevenson said in a statement sent to district families that the employees have separation agreements signed with the district.

“We are committed to ensuring a positive, respectful, and supportive learning environment for our students,” Stevenson wrote.

ABC 17 News obtained the agreements from the district. Lewis signed hers on Oct. 7 and Plogger signed his on Oct. 14.

The agreements state their resignations will be effective at the end of the 2025-2026 school year; until then, Plogger and Lewis will remain on leave with full pay and benefits. Their individual health insurance coverage under the district’s group plan will continue through June 30, 2026.

The district also agreed to pay Lewis for completing a career ladder step for the 2025-2026 school year.

The district will provide references for Plogger and Lewis to future employers, according to their agreements.

Separation Agreement Kayla LewisDownload

A reference letter for Lewis was attached to her agreement. Lewis’ reference letter comes from Ty Sides, the Hallsville Middle School principal.

“I have had the privilege of working with Kayla for the past 5 years as a middle school counselor at Hallsville Middle School, and I can confidently say that she is an exceptional professional who will thrive in any counseling role,” the letter reads.

Sides detailed the skills that Lewis could bring into her next workplace.

“She possesses a deep understanding of the unique challenges that students face during their formative years, and her ability to connect with and empower them is truly remarkable. Her natural empathy and communication skills allow her to build trust with students, making her a go-to resource for those seeking guidance and support,” the letter states.

Separation Agreement Anthony PloggerDownload

The agreements say the employees cannot make any claims against the district or its affiliates. Those can include claims for compensatory damages, emotional distress, loss of reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, costs, expenses and attorneys’ fees.

The employees also agreed not to pursue any legal action against the district, its affiliates and any of its current and former employees. They also waived any right to employment, reinstatement or reemployment with the District.

Lewis has to return any district property she has within three business days of the agreement being fully executed. Plogger has 10 business days.

No one admitted liability, according to the agreements.

About a dozen members of the public spoke about the issue last month at a school board meeting.

ABC 17 News spoke with Hallsville parents on Thursday. Many reactions were split around the issue.

Karena White said her son used to attend Hallsville Middle School and her daughter still attends Hallsville Primary School. She is concerned about her daughter’s future with the school district and its employees that support Plogger and Lewis.

“The fact that the same staff is openly supporting these vial opinions of staff in relation to the Charley Kirk tragedy makes me very concerned for her future in this school,” White said in a statement to ABC 17 News.

Another parent, who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, said she feels the situation was ‘grossly mishandled’ by the district.

“My family is considering moving out of the district,” the parent said in a statement to ABC 17 News. “This is not just sad for our students who were without a teacher and counselor for a month, but our district which struggles with teacher retention to begin with, and also the state of the country as a whole. This was a matter of free speech and it was grossly mishandled.”

She questioned the district’s next steps forward.

“I question what the school district is doing to attract teachers, what they are doing to retain teachers, how they can assure that our students’ education and social/emotional development will not be negatively impacted until full-time replacement staff are hired, and how they will repair the broken trust of their teachers and this community,” the parent said.

A Hallsville teacher, who asked to stay anonymous due to fear of retaliation, tells ABC 17 News the situation has made many of the teachers within the district fear for their own jobs.

“The overwhelming message this sent the staff was that we aren’t protected by the district even if we do nothing wrong. This set a concerning precedent. Many of us are upset and disagree with how this turned out, including their students,” the teacher said.

In a statement to ABC 17 News, Superintendent Tyler Walker said the district has started the hiring process.

“The district is making every effort to fill these positions as quickly as possible in order to provide our students with consistent and high quality educational services,” Walker said.

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Jazsmin Halliburton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The University of Missouri Board of Curators is seeking to attract developers for an entertainment and hospitality district on campus to enhance the university’s offerings.

The university aims to build on the momentum of the current renovations of Memorial Stadium and continue its goal to enhance the game-day experience for fans. The university will actively seek proposals to open certain areas on or near campus for entertainment and hospitality, enhancing the university as a whole.

There will be three development zones that the university has designated for developers:

Development Zone #1: North Campus/Central Business District

5th & Locust Street North

5th & Locust Street South

10th & Locust Street

Hitt & Paquin Street

University Avenue

Development Zone #2: Campus Core

Flat Branch Creek

Stadium & Tiger Avenue

Stadium & College Avenue

Development Zone #3: Athletic Sports Complex

Hearnes Complex

Gustin Golf Course

In the university’s search for developers, several requirements must be followed when requests are submitted. According to university documents, developers should consider and strive its request to follow the guiding principles of the university, such as:

Projects should prioritize hospitality and/or entertainment, enhancing the game-day experience within the MU Athletics Sports Complex and may include other mixed-use components to form a year-round commercial hub.

Projects within the MU Athletics Sports Complex should incorporate novel ideas, features, and benefits that have the potential to differentiate/elevate MU Athletics.

Projects should generate meaningful revenue for the University, either through upfront funds or over time through on-going payments.

Projects should not require any University capital be committed.

Projects should not require that the University issue or underwrite the use of bonds as a financing source.

Projects should not impact the University’s credit or rating.

Projects should be financially feasible and based on realistic assumptions.

Developers must send in their request to the Board of Curators by January 9, 2025.

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Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia residents had the chance to learn more about the city’s newly approved fiscal year 2026 budget during a “Let’s Talk Local” event on Wednesday night.

Mayor Barbara Buffaloe hosted the discussion at Missouri United Methodist Church, where city officials outlined spending priorities and answered questions from the community. Around 35 people — including city staff and media — attended.

During the presentation, the city’s Director of Finance Matthew Lue shared an anecdote that summed up the message behind the city’s budget priorities. 

“Don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are,” Lue said in reference to a quote from James W. Frick. 

By that measure, public safety remains one of Columbia’s top priorities. The city will spend $35 million on police and $30 million on the fire department this fiscal year. The next highest line item is Public Works at $17 million.

“The majority of that is for people,” Buffaloe told ABC 17 News. “It’s for the people responding for when you call for service.” 

The city is operating under a planned deficit for the second straight year. However, City Manager De’Carlon Seewood said that was partly by design. Last year’s shortfall helped purchase new police vehicles, while this year’s budget focuses on raising employee salaries.

“Last year, with capital purchases, we bought police vehicles. We bought vehicles for public works and so that was actually purposely done,” Seewood said during the meeting when talking about the deficit. “This year, it is about employees. Like the mayor said, we made a commitment to our employees. In the past, we hadn’t been rewarding our employees, and our salaries hadn’t adjusted and what we saw was we couldn’t hire anyone.” 

Seewood told ABC 17 News the city is currently reviewing its revenue sources after being asked whether tax increases could help close the deficit and improve staffing. He said that while it’s an option, no decisions have been made.

Staffing remains a concern for the Columbia Police Department, though Chief Jill Schlude said the department is carefully evaluating its needs before making additional funding requests.

CPD plans to bring back the downtown unit in May, but that move will come at the expense of the traffic unit.

“A city this size should have traffic so we want to make sure we build out a real ask,” Schlude said during the meeting. “I told the mayor this the other day and I think she was surprised but at one point we only had one detective working all the property crimes in the city.”

Schlude was also asked about the homelessness downtown. She says the department has been tracking calls they get about the unhoused and roughly 86% of those are for trespassing. 

“I think it’s important for people to understand that the police department. We’re not policing housing status, we’re policing behavior,” Schlude said. “So we’re responding to what people are doing that is not within the law, and just the way the world is right now, we get called to handle a lot of things that really aren’t things that we handle.” 

​​Schlude said most of the city’s officers have received crisis intervention training, but the police training program the city previously used did not offer it, leaving a gap in the department. She said the goal is to reach 100% certification, though the training takes a full week to complete.

The city has recently ramped up enforcement efforts downtown, but questions remain about how long that can last.

“Obviously, we have outside forces that are helping out right now, especially on weekends and gamedays. But we don’t expect it to happen much after the season,” Buffaloe told ABC 17 News. “When it gets colder, we don’t have as many hotspots in the downtown area. But, if you look forward to our fiscal year ’26 budget, we actually will, because of people we have graduating from the academy, we will have our summer unit starting before the summer of next year.”

The next Let’s Talk Local discussion is scheduled in two weeks and will feature D’Markus Thomas-Brown from the Office of Violence Prevention.

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ABC 17 News Team

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says it’s almost done cleaning up a portion of the Lake of the Ozarks where a marina caught fire over the summer.

Investigators say the Aug. 4 fire was accidental and may have been caused by an electrical issue with a house boat. Several docks and a boat caught fire.

The DNR first had to remove the docks before taking out the boats.

A DNR spokesperson told ABC 17 News that cleanup should be finished in one or two weeks.

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Nia Hinson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A full report outlining recommended safety improvements for Business Loop 70 in Columbia is expected to be completed by next spring.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission met Wednesday night at City Hall, where leaders provided an update on the audit. The City of Columbia and CBB Transportation Solutions conducted walk-throughs along the loop on Tuesday and Wednesday to identify safety improvements needed in the area.

Mckenzie Ortiz, an advocacy coordinator at Local Motion, took part in the walk-through on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Ortiz said Tuesday night’s walk took place from the Aldi and Interstate 70 interchange roundabout to Providence Road. Wednesday morning’s walk took place from Hickman High School to Paris Road.

Ortiz said the walk gave her a unique experience of what activity along Business Loop 70 is at night.

“The one thing I noticed is that there’s a lot of pedestrian activity, even after dark in that area,” Ortiz said. “Also a lot of people driving, picking up folks so it was a lot busier than I thought. This morning, we were at Hickman High School so we got to observe the high school traffic and the marching band. We saw a lot of activity there too so overall we just saw how busy Business Loop really gets.”

Ortiz said overall, she believes the road could use more sidewalks, especially east of Range Line Street and said maintaining the sidewalks is key. She also said having traffic experts along the walk allowed them to view inconsistencies of drivers not knowing what to do, and trying to avoid medians.

Ortiz is a Columbia resident who doesn’t drive and said she has walked along the Business Loop before, and knows how scary doing that can be. She said conditions are especially scary on the east side, due to a lack of connected sidewalks.

“I was really excited to be there with professionals who are usually in their car to get them on their feet and kind of walking the lay of the land so that way they know what my experience is like and also the experience of so many folks, so many students from Hickman High School, so many people in general that don’t have cars,” Ortiz said.

The audit focuses on identifying safety improvements aimed at eliminating traffic-related deaths and serious injuries. The project prioritizes safer conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, seniors, motorcyclists and school-aged children.

A CBB Engineering Project lead told ABC 17 News on Tuesday that he sees a need to adjust the signal timing at Business Loop 70 and Stadium Boulevard on Saturdays during sporting events at Cosmo Park.

He also said filling in gaps along the  the south side of the corridor, as well as adding crosswalks to parts of the corridor for pedestrians is necessary.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone Health is chipping away at Missouri’s primary care shortage, hiring 25 providers in the past 12 months, eight of whom are primary care providers.

Four additional primary care providers are expected to join Boone Health by the end of the year, according to a Wednesday press release from Boone Health. The release adds that each provider can accept 1,800 new patients.

“It’s not an 8-to-5 job. We do a lot of extra charting, we have to do a lot of extra reading to keep up the credentialing that we have, we obviously do research,” Boone Health Dr. Holly Boyer said. “We’ve got more people to be able to accept those new patients.

“Across the nation, there has been a strong need for primary care providers, and the mid-Missouri community is no different,” said Drew Wilkinson, Boone Health vice president of provider and ambulatory operations said in the press release.

According to Rural Health Information Hub, 106 out of 114 counties in the state are considered Health Professional Shortage Areas for primary care.

According to a Health Resources and Services Administration report from June, Missouri needs to add 476 primary care physicians to address the state’s shortage rates.

“I’ve heard from patients that they’re being booked out six months, sometimes eight months, to get into a primary care physician,” Boyer said. “It’s been really hard for patients to be seen in a timely fashion just because of the shortage.”

Both SSM Health St. Mary’s in Jefferson City and MU Health Care are focusing on increasing numbers. MU Health Care reported in June that 13 providers were expected to join its workforce in July.

The next primary care provider expected to join Boone Health will begin working at Boone’s Moberly Clinic in December.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Two men who were charged in separate child porn cases in Missouri were indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday.

David Narcato, 41, of Columbia, was indicted in the western district of Missouri on two counts of producing child pornography and one count of child porn possession.

He was previously charged in 2023 in Boone County with five counts of first-degree child molestation, three counts of statutory rape, first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, two counts of statutory sodomy of a victim and possession of child pornography. All Boone County charges stated the victims were younger than 12 years old.

Court documents in previous reporting state the assaults occurred between 2021-23. One of the victims underwent a SANE exam following an injury. Documents initially stated the child “fell off a bike” but a physical exam indicated injuries related to sexual assault.

That victim eventually stated there was sexual contact from Nacarato and that he lied about the incident, court documents say.

Case from Miller County

Brandon Long, 21, of Eldon, was indicted on receiving child porn and possessing child porn. He was previously charged in 2024 in Miller County with possessing child pornography and first-degree promoting obscenity.

Court documents in previous reporting say the Miller County Sheriff’s Office received a cybertip from the social media messaging application Kik that said child porn was uploaded from a Miller County IP address.

Search warrants were served to Kik in July 2024, and the company provided encrypted files that depicted child porn from an account, the statement says. Images of Long were also include, the statement says.

While a search warrant was being served at his home, Long allegedly admitted to sending and receiving child porn and claimed the account belonged to him, previous reporting says.

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