Category: kmiz-local-news

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No warrant was served after Columbia police officers were seen in a standoff Tuesday evening on Sylvan Lane.

Officers were seen investigating an area of Sylvan Lane between Vandiver Drive and Quail Drive and were asking for someone to come out of a residence. Sylvan Lane was closed off as officers worked.

The Columbia Police Department wrote in a social media post that multiple officers were dispatched because of the “nature and severity of the call.”

“Upon arrival, officers secured the area while the incident was investigated. We evaluated the circumstances to determine whether a search warrant would be sought for the collection of potential evidence inside the residence,” the post says. “After careful assessment, we determined that a search warrant would not be pursued at that time.”

Officers left the scene at 8:30 p.m.

A CPD spokesman said earlier in the day that police were in the area in regards to an assault investigation.

Check back for updates.

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Matthew Sanders

EDITOR’S NOTE: Melissa Buchanan’s current job has been corrected.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Boone County’s top prosecutor wasted no time putting in his name for an associate circuit judge seat on Tuesday, while the term-limited state House member serving Jefferson City filed for Cole County clerk.

Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson signed his paperwork less than 30 minutes after filing opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Johnson, a Democrat, is running in the August primary to be the next Division 11 associate circuit judge.

Melissa Buchanan, formerly the state’s director of securities enforcement and now Boone County’s first assistant prosecutor, filed to run for prosecuting attorney as a Democrat — the only candidate to put in their name for Johnson’s current position on the first day of filing.

Several Boone County officeholders filed for reelection: Division 5 Associate Circuit Judge Kimberly Shaw, Division 10 Associate Circuit Judge Kayla Jackson-Williams, Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick, County Auditor Kyle Rieman, Circuit Clerk Sherry Terrell, County Clerk Brianna Lennon and Collector Brian McCollum.

Reiman was the only one to draw a challenger, with fellow Democrat Allen Bel-Long seeking the office.

Republican Josh Devine filed for reelection as Division 4 13th Circuit judge, serving Boone and Callaway counties.

In Cole County, term-limited House member Dave Griffith and Jefferson City Councilman Jeff Ahlers both filed as Republicans to replace retiring County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer. Term-limited state Sen. Mike Bernskoetter will run as a Republican for presiding commissioner.

Filing for the August primary will remain open through March 31.

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Matthew Sanders

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story has been updated to note that Dr. Lisa Thomas is a former House member.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

The August Republican primary in Missouri’s Sixth Senate District is a crowded field after just the opening day of filing.

Filing for the August primary opened Tuesday, including the seat that represents Cole, Miller, Camden, Morgan and Moniteau counties in the Missouri Senate. The seat will be open after Republican Mike Bernskoetter served the maximum two terms.

House member Rudy Veit and former House member Dr. Lisa Thomas, former Jefferson City councilman Derrick Spicer, Jefferson City Coca-Cola President Jake Vogel and Amber Buckles of Macks Creek all filed on the first day. No Democrats filed to run in the strong Republican district.

The 10th Senate District, which includes Callaway and Montgomery counties, drew two Republican candidates — Montgomery County farmer Mike Deering and St. Charles County state Rep. Tricia Byrnes. The seat is being vacated by Travis Fitzwater, who is being appointed as director of the Missouri Technology Corporation.

State Rep. John Martin filed for reelection in Boone County’s 44th House District. A Democrat has also filed for her party’s nomination — Bekki Brewer of Hallsville.

The 60th House District, which represents Jefferson City, will have a new legislator after Dave Griffith was term-limited out (Griffith filed Tuesday for Cole County clerk). Republicans Scott Spencer, Kyerra Johnson, Steven Houser and Democrat Suzanne Luther filed for the primary election on the first day.

Veit is being term-limited out of his seat representing rural Cole County in the 59th House District. That race has drawn three Republican candidates — Vic Rackers, Carrie Tergin, Glenn Reynolds.

The full list of candidate filings is posted on the Missouri secretary of state’s website. Filing closes March 31.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A South Carolina man has been accused of murdering a woman in Boone County in February 2000.

Sentrell Wilson, 45, of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, was charged with first-degree murder in Boone County. He was arrested in South Carolina on Tuesday morning and is being held at the Spartanburg County Jail.

Columbia Police Department Lt. Matt Gremore said the victim was Candice Richie. Richie, 21, was a student at the University of Missouri.

Wilson is charged in South Carolina with being a fugitive from out of state. An extradition order was filed in Boone County on Tuesday, according to court filings. He will be held without bond when he is brought to Boone County.

A probable cause statement in either state was not readily available on Tuesday afternoon.

“As part of the arrest warrant, we started doing investigations into his whereabouts to locate him and develop a safe arrest plan for us,” CPD Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger said.

Bolinger said Richie and Wilson were in a relationship.

According to Bolinger, police were originally called to the 2300 block of Whitegate Drive in February 2000 for a death investigation, where they found a woman dead. Bolinger said he could not go into detail about the extent of Richie’s injuries or what police found on scene, citing the open investigation.

However, he said after receiving the report from the medical examiner’s office, police determined the death was a homicide.

A bond motion claims Wilson asphyxiated a woman and left her body where it was not found for several days, then fled Missouri.

Bolinger said police always believed that Wilson was a suspect in the case and claimed the case was referred to the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office in May 2000. Bolinger also said detectives from CPD interviewed Wilson in 2000, but an arrest was not made at the time due to the circumstances surrounding Richie’s death.

“At that point, there were some concerns about the ability to establish a clear medical cause of death for the victim and based off of that concern, they were not able to issue an arrest warrant at that time,” Bolinger said.

Bolinger said Wilson is the only suspect in the case.

Bolinger said the case got pulled up to CPD’s cold case team in 2019 to investigate. A couple of years later, in 2023, he said police believed they had enough evidence to take the case back to the prosecutor’s office for review.

A press release from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office says “a renewed focus” for the case started last year after a member of the victim’s family met with officials.

Bolinger said police constantly work to crack unsolved cases and bring closure to the victim’s families. He said a retired police officer reached out and thanked them for solving the case and asked how they did so, but he said the case was already solved years ago.

“The investigators that work at the Columbia Police Department and at the Attorney General’s Office, there’s cases of unsolved homicides and missing person’s that they review regularly, looking for any new developments, any new technology that has come out that they can dive into to help solve this case,” Bolinger said. “The reality is that they already solved this case back in 2000 with all the work that they did at that time. Our investigators today put a lot of work into it, they championed it across the finish line.”

Richie’s younger brother, state Rep. Mark Sharp (D-Jackson County), said he was relieved to learn of Wilson’s arrest as he reflected on the day his sister was killed.

“After 26 years, I was in eighth grade when this happened, and I was a kid, being dragged out of middle school to Columbia after we got the news,” Sharp said.  “So it’s a very sobering day for us.”

He later added, “People need to know what happened to my sister Candice, and what really happened to her.”

Sharp told ABC 17 News he was not given a specific reason for the decades-long delay in the case, but said he is grateful to the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office for taking a renewed look at it.

“Once I found out, I was just in complete shock after 26 years. This isn’t something that you expect to happen,” Sharp said. “I think on certain cases like this,  just having a second set of eyeballs look at the case can go a long way.”

Richie was remembered by her brother as a vibrant and engaged student.

“We grew up together. She loved singing R&B music, and we would dance all the time in the living room together,” Sharp said. “She was a cheerleader, a four-year cheerleader. She was in band from middle school all the way through high school. And of course, she was an arts and science major at the University of Missouri before she was killed her senior year. So she was always wanting to uplift the lives of the black community and was a very strong voice for making sure that black rights and rights for all people were recognized in the state.”

Last April, the University of Missouri hosted its annual MU Remembers ceremony, which honors students and faculty who have passed away. Sharp said he previously spoke with UM System President Mun Choi, who was not aware of his sister’s case and later made it a priority to ensure she was included. In a Facebook post, Sharp said Richie was formally recognized and was the only student honored at the ceremony.

“He wasn’t aware of what happened to my sister,” Sharp said. “The actual ceremony didn’t exist back then, so I appreciate very greatly him including my sister, so the university could formally recognize her and remember all the work that she did while she was a student at MU.”

Sharp said he hopes the renewed attention on the case sends a message to other families still waiting for answers.

“Any families out there that have had to experience violent crime where you may not have been able to get justice as fast as you want, do not give up on those cases,” he said. “Please continue to reach out to prosecutors. Having a different set of eyes look at a case can do a lot for an investigation.”

Sharp has also filed several House bills aimed at preventing similar cases in the future, including House Bill 2315. The proposal would require law enforcement to document whether a deceased person had a known history of domestic violence victimization, and conduct certain interviews before determining a cause of death, and allow families to request investigative records if a suspicious death is ruled not a homicide.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A suspect was seriously injured when a chase ended in a crash near the Blackwater exit on Interstate 70 in Cooper County.

The chase started near Oak Grove, east of Kansas City, said Sgt. Justin Ewing with the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Troop A. The suspect was in a vehicle reported stolen from Nebraska, Ewing said.

Troopers used spike strips to stop the vehicle, Sgt. Kyle Green with MSHP Troop F said. The vehicle rolled into a tractor-trailer when it crashed, he said.

The crash caused a traffic jam on both sides of the interstate.

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Matthew Sanders

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

People combing a creek bed in Moniteau County for deer antlers found human remains over the weekend, the sheriff said Tuesday.

Sheriff Tony Wheatley said the shed hunters found a partial human skeleton along a creek on Indian Springs Road, west of Jamestown, and deputies recovered it Saturday night. The sheriff’s office sent the bones to the Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office for identification, Wheatley said.

Wheatley said it’s not clear how old the bones are, and that the area has some indigenous burial sites, so an anthropologist is also examining the remains.

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Madison Stuerman

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Lincoln University sprinter has been charged with stabbing her boyfriend, who is also a Lincoln University student-athlete, on Monday.

Cole County prosecutors charged Denita Jackson with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson later identified the victim as Kevaughn Goldson, 23. Goldson was a senior from Jamaica who was a sprinter on the LU track and field team, according to the LU Athletics website.

Jackson is also a senior sprinter, whose hometown is listed as Berbice, Guyana.

Court documents state that Jackson was in a romantic relationship with Goldson, but there was a history of domestic violence incidents between the two. She said the most recent fight was about a missing bottle of cologne.

Jackson told police she thought Goldson was having an affair with one of her roommates.

Police said Jackson had left for work late Sunday night but came home early after not feeling well. She told police that the victim was in her bedroom when she left, but was not there when she came back around 1 a.m. Monday.

Court documents state that Jackson said she could hear a roommate talking with someone in their room. She used a hairclip to unlock the door and told police she found Goldson and the witness in the bed, but fully dressed with the missing bottle of cologne.

Jackson allegedly jumped onto the bed, grabbed the bottle and Goldson by his shirt, starting the fight. Police said Jackson said Goldson kicked her in the stomach, causing her to fall off the bed.

Police said Jackson reported Goldson was on top of her and started to choke her. This is when she told police she grabbed the knife from under the witness’s bed and stabbed Goldson in the back and chest.

Officers arrived after Jackson called 911 about the stabbing. Goldson was taken to the Capital Region Emergency Room, where police took photos of his injuries. Police said they tried to interview him, but he was not cooperative.

Goldson was later taken by helicopter to University Hospital, where he died during surgery.

Jackson was arrested and booked into the Cole County Jail on Monday. As of Tuesday morning, no court hearing had been set for Jackson.

This marks the third homicide investigation in Jefferson City in 2026. Malcolm Mayes, 29, is accused of shooting and killing Jeremy Greer, 39, on Jan. 9, 2026. And Malang Akbari, 46, allegedly stabbed his wife to death on Jan. 13.

Police say this many homicides in a short span of time is unusual.

“Three so soon into the year like this. Concerning,” Jefferson City Police Department Lt. Curtis Finke said. “It’s something worth a look at and look into the dynamics of what’s contributing to those and how we should communicate with our partners and our teams and our assets.”

According to court documents, the stabbing death of Goldson and Malang AKbari’s wife both allegedly stemmed from relationship violence.

Finke said JCPD has recognized the trend.

“Any time we can identify an increase in something or identify a situation, maybe progressively going the wrong direction, we can certainly work with our leaders, have our law enforcement partners work with our leadership,” Finke said.

Though resources like victim advocates and mental health liaisons are available that people experiencing domestic violence, Finke said some conversations may need to be had about the trend.

“Any time there is a violent situation and it comes from households or a domestic situation, people need to know resources exist before they reach a volatile point,” Finke said.

JCPD can also be called to diffuse situations or offer support to domestic violence victims.

“We can get them to a safe area, we can get them out of a dangerous situation before it gets to a point where death does occur or there’s some sort of serious physical injury,” Finke said.

Besides police, Jefferson City is focusing on domestic violence in offices like the county prosecutor’s.

“Recently, our office has spearheaded a domestic violence task force in conjunction with our local law enforcement, Probation & Parole, and the courts,” Cole County Prosecutor Locke Thompson wrote in an email Tuesday.

Thompson and his office have tracked the amount of cases involving such violence.

“Since the beginning of 2018, the Cole County Prosecutor’s Office has prosecuted 27 murders, 5 of which have been classified as intimate parter violence, including the recent Akbari and Jackson cases,” Thompson wrote.

He believes the city’s violent start to the year is not a trending concern.

“This is a clear anomaly in a community that has averaged 3.375 murders per year over the past 8 years. While we have had 3 homicides early in the year, overall violent crime rates have decreased, particularly weapons offenses, and I consider the number of homicides to be a brief spike as opposed to any sort of trend,” Thompson wrote.

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Ryan Shiner

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

A market study regarding the new conference center was presented to the Jefferson City Council on Monday during a special work session.  

Renderings of the new conference center hotel were shown during a presentation. The hotel is expected to be open by June 1, 2028, according to presentation documents.

It will be located at the city block between East Capitol Avenue, Monroe Street, Commercial Way and Madison Street. Crews have been clearing out the area for the past couple of years, with the Madison Street Parking Garage being the most-recent demolition. The council last month approved the creation of a downtown conference center transportation development district.

The market study by CBRE Valuation & Advisory Services shows the 203-hotel room should expect roughly 70% occupancy (of 74,0925 expected rooms) through its first five years. The net income over that period is expected to be around $5.5 million, the study shows.

Rooms will range in sizes between 320 square feet through 600 square feet and the building will have a 15,000-square-foot ballroom that could hold 1,000 people.  

“The CVB has indicated more than 50 groups have held their meetings in Jefferson City in the past but have been pushed out due to lack of quality facilities,” the study says.

The study claims there is a market need to host 1,000-person events annually or biannually that need at least 400 hotel rooms. There are currently 560 rooms available at Jefferson City hotels, the study claims.

“In conjunction with this market study, a parking study is being performed to create a shared parking model which will determine the optimal size of the new parking structure based on existing parking demand, increased demand due to the conference center & hotel, as well as increased demand due to induced downtown redevelopment,” the study says.

Financing is coming from hotel and incentive revenue bonds, lodging Tax revenue bonds, parking revenue bonds, non-ARPA grants, parking fund contributions, state appropriations, lodging tax contributions, MDFB tax credits and project fund interest earnings totaling $121.7 million.

2026-02-23 work session packetDownload

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Haley Swaino

TAOS, Mo. (KMIZ)

About two months after a deadly pedestrian crash in Cole County, solutions are in the works to make crosswalks safer.

On Dec. 24, a 16-year-old driver hit an 85-year-old man and an 86-year-old woman crossing Route M in Taos near St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church just before Mass. The man was pronounced dead at a hospital and the woman was seriously hurt.

The crash happened in an area where Mayor Ronald Walker said speed has always been a problem.

The speed limit is 55 miles per hour coming into the city on either side and quickly drops to 30 miles per hour just before drivers approach more pedestrian-heavy areas like the Catholic church and school. The highway is essentially Taos’ main street.

“Route M was like an evolution of local community roads that was adopted into the state supplementary routes and they were hard paved,” Walker said. So it’s a pretty main connector between Route 50 on the east side of Jeff City, around Wardsville and the communities in southern Cole County.”

The amount of drivers taking Route M through Taos has grown, according to Walker. On average, 824 vehicles used the stretch of highway in 2024. ABC 17 News saw many drivers going at least 10 miles per hour over the limit on Monday.

“You get that reduction for people coming in from a 50 to a 30 and then going through this area. So speed is always a concern,” Walker said.

Before he was elected mayor in 2022, Walker worked for the Missouri State Highway Patrol. While MSHP and the Missouri Department of Transportation did not share what caused the deadly December crash, he said a number of factors could have played a part.

“This day and age, distracted driving is a huge concern. There’s people coming out of private driveways. There’s always activity around the church and the school. There’s pulling in, parking on either side up here that I think can play a part in congestion and people getting in and out of those parking spots,” Walker said. “So I think there’s a lot of different things that could play into a real bad sequence of events.”

One factor he said the city can work to improve is speeding.

“The board [Taos Board of Aldermen] felt like we could maybe gain some extra awareness for drivers coming through if we had what they [MoDOT] call a driver feedback sign on either side of this general part of the community that just announces your speed,” Walker said.

The hope is having a speed reader on each side of the city will alert drivers if they’re going too fast and encourage them to slow down. MoDOT is also exploring other pedestrian safety features along Route M, such as lighting.

“There’s a certain standard for lighting,” Walker said. “You don’t want to have intensity of light enough that you distract a driver with artificial lighting when it’s too dark.”

The Dec. 24 crash happened around 8:20 p.m., according to an MSHP crash report. While costs are still being estimated, Taos will front the bill for whatever safety features are installed. MoDOT does not typically pay for pedestrian improvements.

“I’m not sure how you put a cost on safety. I mean, there’s always a balance, but I think good safety is just a great investment for every community,” Walker said.

A MoDOT engineer is set to meet Walker in Taos next week and look at where speed readers might be placed.

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

With the U.S. Senate reviewing House amendments in the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, the bill needs Senate approval to be moved to President Donald Trump’s desk.

If approved, the SAVE Act would require those registering to vote to have proof of citizenship. Supporters argue the bill strengthens election integrity, while opponents argue it adds unnecessary bureaucracy to the voting process and disenfranchises eligible voters.

Sen. John Hawley (R-MO) praised the bill in a statement.

“We ought to pass the SAVE Act,” Hawley said. “I think we ought to have it nationwide. We ought to make national elections safe and secure and fair, and the best way to restore confidence in our national elections is to pass these commonsense rules.”

It is currently illegal for non-citizens to cast ballots, with applicants required to self-report their citizenship in applications. Current safeguards also compare registrations with data from the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health, Department of Revenue and sometimes the Department of Corrections.

The SAVE Act also applies to those re-registering to vote after moving or changing their name.

Valid documents to prove citizenship include a passport, a birth certificate and military identification cards.

“It’s checking for eligibility on a variety of areas on the voter registration form,” Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said. “When we’re looking at the voter registration application that comes in, the voter checks off that they are a citizen and then they’re also attesting under penalty of law that they are a citizen.”

Opponents claim citizens would be affected by the bill.

“Senior citizens whose IDs may be expired, voters with disabilities who may not drive, young people who may move frequently, low-income and low-wage workers who may not have the fees necessary to get those underlying documents because they’re not free,” said Denise Lieberman, who is the director and general counsel of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition.

Lieberman added that citizens with out-of-state birth records, records with possible errors and victims of natural disasters also may run into issues with accessing valid documents.

“These measures would simply impose additional burdens on the voters themselves, United States citizens who have a fundamental right to participate and make them prove they are a citizen, even though they’ve already proved they are who they say they are,” Lieberman said.

Critics have also voiced concern for women who recently married and have a name different from their birth certificate.

“This isn’t just about women who have changed their name, this is about any person who’s ever changed their name,” Karen Sicheneder with When She Votes said. “I think it’s disingenuous when you hear arguments that, ‘Well, everyone has an ID,’ no, they don’t.”

According to ABC, noncitizens voting in elections is uncommon. A 2024 audit of Georgia voter rolls found that out of 8.2 million registered voters, 20 non-citizens were registered to vote. Only nine ended up casting a ballot.

Lennon added that some invalid registrations also come from application mistakes.

“When people are filling out these forms, if they make a mistake, if they fill one out and they’re not supposed to or they think they’re supposed to, or they think that they’re eligible, those kinds of things do happen very rarely,” Lennon said. “But in an instance of actually voting, very, very uncommon.”

Lennon added that until the bill is passed, prospective voters should continue to head to the polls.

“We do have an April 7 election that’s coming up. We want people to get out and vote, make their voice heard, “Lennon said.

The Missouri House Special Committee on Redistricting is also hosting a public hearing on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in House Hearing Room 1 for House Concurrent Resolution 48. The bill voices the Missouri General Assembly’s support for the SAVE Act and urges the United States Senate to approve the bill.

Citizens can also submit testimonies for the hearing.

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