Certificate filed in wrongful death lawsuit of MU student as woman accused of murder still hasn’t been evaluated by the DMH

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A woman accused of murder in the death of a University of Missouri student in January 2023 appeared in court on Monday by video from the Boone County Jail with her attorney pleading that she hasn’t been transported to the Department of Mental Health yet. 

Emma Adams, 22, was charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence and abandoning a corpse.

Adams was committed to the DMH in November, but had been awaiting an evaluation. A status hearing was set for Tuesday, July 30 for DMH placement and an update on her status on the department’s wait list. A status review with the DMH was set for January 21, 2025. 

Adams was arrested and charged in January 2023 after an investigation that started at the University of Missouri led to police finding a burned body in a residential area far from campus. Police initially couldn't identify the body because of its condition. Samuel Clemons was eventually identified. He was 21.

The investigation started when University of Missouri police officers were sent to Hudson Hall at about 5:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2023, for a welfare check, which led them to the 2400 block of Bentley Court in north Columbia. Officers found the body there and called Columbia police for a homicide investigation, according to a Columbia Police Department social media post.

Adams allegedly told police she stabbed Clemons in self-defense.

Attorney Dan Viets said using mental competence as a defense for crimes is “almost always used when capital punishment is a possibility.” 

“If you win the argument that you're not competent to stand trial you don’t walk away. You go to a mental health facility and you may stay there for the rest of your life,” Viets said

The criminal charges are not the only legal battle that Adams is facing. A certificate of service was requested last week by Clemons’ mother Jennifer Riley in her wrongful death lawsuit against Adams and her parents Russell Adams and Carrie Cannaday.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Boone County on Feb. 2. The certificate of service filed on Thursday requests that Adams’ responses were sent to the A.W. Smith law firm.

The amended petition accuses Emma and Russell Adams of negligence, Russell Adams of negligent supervision and premises liability, and both parents of negligent entrustment.

The lawsuit alleges that Adams and Cannaday knew their daughter suffered from a diagnosed mental health disease and had “violent propensities towards others” but still allowed her to live by herself with access to knives and drugs. It also states that Emma Adams’ “violent history” includes assaulting and hitting her mother and father. 

"Whether these defendants are truly liable for this loss is a core question. Were they negligent? Did they owe a duty to a young man they met or never heard of? Maybe. That’s possible but plaintiffs have to convince a jury that there was a duty. That duty was breached either through negligence or intentional acts and therefore there are damages that ought to be paid and will likely be paid for by the insurance company of the defendants,” Viets said. 

The amended petition claims that Russell Adams ran a short-term rental business at Emma Adams’ address and that Emma Adams was a “volunteer employee.”

The lawsuit claims the parents failed to exercise reasonable control to prevent Emma Adams from harming others by:

• Allowing Emma to act as his volunteer employee despite knowing she was “mentally incompetent, suffered from serious mental illness, was unable to understand her own actions, and had violent propensities towards others”
• Failing to care for his “mentally incompetent daughter” by failing to provide Adams with the mental health professional services she required, including taking prescribed medications.
•  Failing to supervise his “mentally incompetent daughter” 
• Permitting his daughter to have access to occupy his property on her own, as well as having access to knives, allowing her to have other people over and allowing Emma Adams to have illicit drugs and alcohol

The petitions claims argues that the family’s negligence resulted in the: 

• Damages for the pain and suffering that decedent Samuel Clemons sustained between the time of injury and the time of death;
•  Pecuniary losses suffered by reason of death; and
•  Funeral expenses.

A case management for the conference is scheduled for July 29.

Check back for updates.