Crime News

A planned $6.5 million police station to be built in Jackson will be a major improvement over the existing space, and is on track for completion next year. Jackson police chief James Humphreys said the new building will create a public safety complex, whose layout and square footage will be “a better place to get the job done for the community.”...

For more than three years, the shooting death of Howard Harris Smith Jr. has been listed as one of Cape Girardeau’s unsolved homicides even though police quietly solved the case. The person, recently identified by police chief Wes Blair as the shooter, has not been charged with killing Smith...

While a local community group has focused on getting justice for homicide victims and their families on Cape Girardeau’s south side, police chief Wes Blair said the city has a good track record for solving such violent crimes. “If you include arsons, dog maulings and other manners of homicide, the total count since 2000 is 43, with seven remaining unsolved,” Blair said...

The homicide of Stacy Carter-Gonzales, 48, of Tamms, Illinois, is under investigation, according to a news release issued by Illinois State Police. On Friday, the Alexander County Sheriff's Department received a 911 call of a subject with a gunshot wound at a residence in Tamms, the release stated...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Rethinking the benefit of prisons, Missouri House leaders are backing legislation that could effectively undo mandatory minimum sentencing laws for many nonviolent criminals. The Missouri legislation reflects a national trend toward more lenient prison terms for some drug offenders and other low-level criminals, as governments shift toward alternative strategies that focus more specifically on rehabilitation...

The Jackson Police Department ordered the evacuation of Jackson High School on Friday after a bomb threat was made on Instagram. School officials later canceled classes throughout the district. Police searched the high school room by room, but no evidence of a bomb or bomb-mimicking device was found, said Jackson police Lt. Alex Broch. Jackson police arrested a juvenile girl on suspicion of making a terrorist threat in connection with the incident, according to a statement police released Friday evening...

The best way to combat human trafficking is to become educated on what it looks like and how it happens, said officials at the Crisis Aid International benefit luncheon Friday in Cape Girardeau. Contrary to images of men in vans grabbing people off the street, said Sgt. Alex Kavanaugh with St. Louis County Police Department, a trafficker is more likely to engage with a vulnerable young person online via social media, find out what the target wants and offer it...

Neighbors watch as police and medical personnel respond to a gun-shot victim about 5:35 p.m. Sunday in the 500 block of Amethyst Street in Cape Girardeau. ...

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- A year after a southwestern Missouri county began using trailers to house inmates amid jail overcrowding, more than 100 men are being held in the trailers and officials in other areas of the country are eyeing the program. But some legal experts argue Greene County's program has raised major red flags and caution the crowded conditions could be considered inhumane, The Springfield News-Leader reported...

Cape Girardeau police are investigating after gunfire was reported in the 2800 block of Themis Street on Sunday evening. The shots were reported shortly before 6 p.m., but Cape Girardeau police public information officer Sgt. Rick Schmidt said nobody was injured and no property damage had been identified...

A Cape Girardeau man’s federal lawsuit against the City of Jackson and three of its police officers over a Facebook post about guns and kindergartners has been settled for $80,000, the man’s attorneys said Friday. In exchange for the financial settlement, plaintiff James Robert Ross has agreed to dismiss his lawsuit, attorneys Gordon Glaus and Adam Gohn said...

Former Perry County Coroner Herbert Miller has been convicted of stealing more than $3,300 from a couple who had deposited funds for prepaid funerals, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley said Friday in a news release. Hawley’s office previously obtained felony convictions against Miller, who owned a funeral home, for felony stealing and financial exploitation of the elderly. Miller was sentenced to probation, but violated his probation by stealing more money...

SIKESTON, Mo. — Three people have been charged in connection with Tuesday’s deadly shooting in Sikeston. D’ereck J. Whitney, 19, and Antowon Murice Davis Jr., 22, of Charleston, Missouri, were arrested by Sikeston Department of Public Safety, according to DPS chief Mike Williams, while Darius Cooper, 24, of Charleston was arrested by Charleston Department of Public Safety...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A multidisciplinary coalition of Missouri professionals has launched a data-driven prison reform initiative, aiming to curb rising imprisonment rates. The coalition is implementing portions of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in three of the state's counties to prioritize an investment in mental health treatment and other social services, according to the Columbia Missourian...

Jackson’s new police station will be built by a team headed by Penzel Construction, officials recommended Monday at the Jackson Board of Aldermen regular meeting. During a public meeting at 2 p.m. Monday, Jackson’s design-build consultant George Harris opened the technical proposal and cost estimate for the project from two firms, Penzel Construction and Kiefner Brothers of Cape Girardeau. ...

A Cape Girardeau woman pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree involuntary manslaughter after a 13-month-old girl she was baby-sitting died from injuries sustained in a dog attack. Erica Jordan, 33, of Cape Girardeau entered the guilty plea in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors...

A Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court jury convicted a Charleston, Missouri, man of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a teenager during a botched drug deal, prosecutors said Friday. Following a two-day trial in Jackson, a jury Wednesday found Jonas Phillips, 30, guilty of murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action. The charges stemmed from the May 19, 2016, shooting at a Cape Girardeau apartment building in the 200 block of North Lorimier Street...

The public defender’s office in Jackson will likely move to a new location soon, according to county officials. At Monday’s regular Cape Girardeau County Commission meeting, Commissioner Charlie Herbst said by Missouri law, the county provides office space and utilities for the public defender’s office...

ST. LOUIS -- The man accused of sexually assaulting two women and fatally shooting another at a Catholic store in suburban St. Louis has requested a public defender. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported 53-year-old Thomas Bruce appeared for his first court appearance in shackles Monday and said little while the 17 charges against him were read...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A new law meant to make it easier for Missouri crime victims to request financial aid to help pay for medical coverage, counseling and other expenses appears to be working, advocates say. Only a few months after a legislative overhaul of the program took effect, it is noticeably easier for victims to request such aid, said Katie Dalton, the director of programs and volunteers at the Crime Victim Center, a St. Louis group that helps victims apply for such aid...

A federal grand jury in Cape Girardeau has indicted a New Madrid County farmer and his farming business on charges of illegally applying dicamba herbicide on crops. Federal prosecutors announced the indictment earlier this week. Bobby David Lowrey, 51 of Parma, Missouri, and his business, Lowrey Farms, are charged in a 53-count indictment with unlawful application of a pesticide, making a false statement and obstruction of justice, according to the indictment...

ST. LOUIS — Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson, 35, of East Prairie, Missouri, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and to illegally possessing and transferring the means of identification of others, in this case mobile telephone numbers, without lawful authority and in connection with the commission of the state felony crime of forgery...

A Cape Girardeau area gynecologist pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to unlawfully prescribing pain pills. A federal grand jury indicted Dr. Michael Jessup on Aug. 17 on a charge of dispensing controlled substances hydrocodone and alprazolam “outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.”...

One person was stabbed during an argument in Cape Girardeau County on Saturday, according to a statement released by the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department. The incident happened just off of U.S. 61 in the Oak Ridge area, according to the statement. It was reported around 1:30 p.m. Saturday...

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- A former Dexter High School industrial arts teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with one of her students will not be prosecuted at this time after the state agreed to defer pursuing the charge against her. "Pursuant to the wishes of the victim ... we entered a deferred prosecution agreement" with Marti L. Pulliam, "and she has surrendered her teaching license" as part of that agreement, explained Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver...