COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A 32-year-old Jefferson City man has been accused of sexually abusing a child from 2019-23. Dakota Benton was charged with statutory sodomy of a child younger than 14 years old and first-degree child molestation. He is being held at the Cole County Jail without bond. A court date has not been scheduled.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) Columbia Public Schools will return to Cole County court on Monday as the months-long legal battle over charter schools in Boone County continues. CPS filed the suit in December after the charter school, Frontier, announced a plan to establish a charter school in the county. The application was later approved by
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) One person was rescued after their vehicle was swept away in floodwaters in Cole County early Monday morning. Jefferson City Fire Department said its crews were called around 5 a.m. to assist the Russellville-Lohman Fire Protection District near Scrivner Road and South Moreau Creek. Russellville-Lohman crews arrived to find the car had
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A 44-year-old Lohman man was killed in a crash Saturday, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report. According to the report, at around 2 p.m., the man was driving a 2005 Ford F150 north on Route D just north of Hilltop Lane when he drove off the left side of
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The Cole County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public of a new phishing scam that is targeting Apple users. A press release from the sheriff’s office says text messages and emails are falsely claiming that “an Apple ID or Apple Pay account has been linked to money laundering or other illegal activity.
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Roughly $1.95 million was paid out to 74 Mid-Missouri landowners along the Rock Island Trail by the federal government. The landowners, represented by a St. Louis firm, brought claims against the federal government for taking their property for the 200-mile hiking and biking trail. The move came in 2015 when the federal
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Two people in their 60s were seriously injured Wednesday in a crash on Route C in Cole County, just south of Spring Ridge Road, according to a crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The report says the driver of a Honda CR-V – a 67-year-old woman from Meta, Missouri –
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A convicted murderer has been accused of killing an inmate at Jefferson City Correctional Center. Zachariah Peterson, 38, was charged with second-degree murder and causing violence to an inmate after a grand jury indictment was filed on Tuesday. A no-bond warrant was issued. Details were scant because of the lack of a
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) The legal guardian of a child with cerebral palsy filed a discrimination lawsuit on Monday against the Russellville School District and a number of its employees. Daryl Matheis sued the Cole County R-1 School District, along with teachers and paraprofessionals, after claiming disability discrimination, sex discrimination, retaliation, battery, assault and false imprisonment.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) The Cole County sheriff made a pitch to county commissioners Tuesday for a sales tax to expand the jail. Sheriff John Wheeler pitched to commissioners a half-cent sales tax that would expire after bonds used to expand the jail are paid off. Wheeler asked for the issue to be on the
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) A Cole County judge ruled Monday in favor of the state, rejecting claims that a ballot issue to eliminate Missouri’s income tax violated the state constitution. Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled against the plaintiff, Jill Owens, on all four counts and declared the judgment final after Gov. Mike Kehoe decided last
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A Jefferson City man is dead after a crash in Cole County Sunday evening. According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, a 46-year-old man was driving a 2015 Jeep Wrangler on Route CC south of South Fox Moor Court just after 4:30 p.m. in Cole County. The man traveled off
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A new judge was assigned on Friday to a Cole County murder from 1991. William “Chris” Niemet, of Fulton, is charged with first-degree murder in a 1991 death of his classmate in Russellville. Niemet, of Fulton, is accused of killing his classmate, Greg Jones, in April 1991 in Russellville. Jones was 14. Niemet
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) A Cole County judge is set to hear arguments Friday morning in a lawsuit against Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and multiple lawmakers over language used for the ballot question of eliminating state income tax. Jill Owens from Kansas City, who is spearheading the lawsuit, claims that the ballot question
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A road-improvement project just north of Jefferson City is expected to begin next week and will last nearly a year. Beginning Monday, June 1, Missouri Department of Transportation crews will start widening Westbound Highway 54 from Highway 64 to the Missouri River Bridge, according to a Wednesday press release from MoDOT. A
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Voters in Jefferson City and Columbia will be asked to approve new sales taxes this summer, while voters statewide will decide on whether to phase out the income tax. Ballot issues were due to election authorities on Tuesday, creating the first picture of which questions will appear on the Aug. 4 primary
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) An Eldon woman was charged on Tuesday in Cole County after she allegedly sold 1,000 ounces – or roughly 62.5 pounds – of someone else’s breast milk that she led a customer to believe it was her own. Emily Buckley is charged with committing deceptive business practices. Court filings show she posted
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) Cole County Public Works is spending $20,900 to buy five speed radar signs that will be used around the county. Public Works Director Eric Landwehr told ABC 17 News in a statement that Henwick Lane will be the first road to see the signs placed. “We have had numerous citizen complaints regarding
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ) A Callaway County man has made an Alford plea to reduced charges in a 2017 Cole County homicide. Zacchaeus D. Silva pleaded guilty earlier this month to accessory to second-degree assault in the beating death of Jerry Robertson on April 20, 2017, court records show. Silva had been indicted with second-degree
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COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) A home health aide was charged on Friday in Cole County after authorities claimed she stole $2,200 from an elderly woman in October 2025. Elondra Johnson-Lopez, of Holts Summit, was charged with stealing more than $750 and financially exploiting an elderly person. She was not listed on the Cole County Jail roster
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