Columbia police arrest, ID suspects in every 2018 homicide so far
Columbia police officers have acted on every homicide this year with either an arrest or a suspect charged.
Monday’s homicide on Sylvan Lane marked the fourth killing in the city in 2018. In all four cases, police have identified a suspect and either took them into custody or had the Boone County prosecutor’s office file charges against them.
The perfect rate on identifying homicide suspects in 2018 could not be said for the two previous years. ABC 17 News has reported on the Columbia Police Department’s growing number of unsolved homicides, with more than half of open cases since 1997 stemming from the years 2016 and 2017. In the same time, CPD employed the fewest number of detectives than cities of similar size.
The 2018 homicides have led to the following law enforcement actions:
Matthew McMillan faces murder and assault charges for the death of Anthony Warren on New Year’s Day. Prosecutors are still reviewing charges against Robert Moses, the security guard who shot Warren. Charles Webb was accused of murdering Robert Jennings on Greeley Drive. Webb was killed by deputies in Kansas later. Police took a juvenile into custody after the shooting death of Rovon Blocker in July. Officers arrested Daria Littleton on Tuesday in relation to the death of Randall King II on Sylvan Lane. Anthony Neill remains at large, charged with second-degree murder.
The city reached four homicides more slowly this year than it did last year. Columbia had seen four homicides by May 13, 2017, when Columbia police officer Chris Papineau shot and killed Clarence Coats.
Glenn Cobbins, Sr., a neighborhood outreach specialist for the city, said the arrests and charges may be a sign that the community is working with police in order to solve the cases.
“People that are getting killed have families, and sons, and daughters, and grandmothers and mothers and aunties, and neighbors,” Cobbins said. “I think the community as a whole is getting tired of it.”
Lt. Paul Dickinson, head of the department’s 14-person Criminal Investigations Division, said he couldn’t point to one particular reason why CPD arrested or identified suspects more quickly this year than in years past.
“Of course we are extremely thankful we can bring some closure to the victims’ families,” Dickinson told ABC 17 News. “More resource[s] always assist in any investigation and help from the community via cooperative witnesses is vital.”
Columbia cleared, or made an arrest, in 36 percent of violent crimes in 2017, according to data published by the Benchmark Cities program. That marked the second-lowest clearance rate if the 29 cities that tracked its clearance rate that year.
At least six of the 16 homicides from 2016 and 2017 remain open.
Gabrielle Rhodes, April 25, 2016 Edmund “Ricky” Randolph, June 24, 2016 Michael Walker, March 26, 2017 Jeffrey Jones, March 26, 2017 Jamar Hicks, July 16, 2017 Augustus Roberts, December 11, 2017
Others have been either convicted or accused of lesser crimes in homicides since then. Ricky Gurley faces a federal weapons charge for the death of Cameron Caruthers in 2017. Willie Higgins pleaded guilty to taking the gun allegedly used in the killing of Damien Davis that same year.
The circumstances of the 2018 cases vary. While McMillan is charged with felony murder for Warren’s death on New Year’s Day, it was private security guard Robert Moses, Jr. that shot and killed Warren. Prosecutor Dan Knight said the case is still under review, as Moses claimed he shot in self-defense.
Charles Webb was never arrested for on suspicion of Jennings’ death, but was killed by police in Overland Park, Kansas two months after he was charged.
A juvenile was arrested the night of Blocker’s death. Details remain slim on what happened in the case, and no charges have been publicly filed against the juvenile yet.
