Columbia murder suspect refuses to appear in court
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Columbia woman accused of murder refused to appear in court on Thursday.
Emma Adams, 20, is charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with evidence and abandoning a corpse. She is being held at the Boone County Jail on a $1 million bond.
An initial arraignment hearing should have taken place at 1 p.m. Thursday, but Adams allegedly refused to appear, according to jail staff who appeared in court. A second attempt for an arraignment hearing is set for 1 p.m. Friday at the Boone County Courthouse.
Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Roger Johnson had no comment on Adams' decision on Thursday. He said a judge can order someone that's in custody to appear in-person, but called an order like that is unusual.
"The Constitution requires an arraignment, that's it," Bill Tackett, a Columbia-based lawyer and former prosecuting attorney, said. "If you refuse to be arraigned and there's a reasonable attempt to arraign you, it's not cause for reversal later,"
Tackett said Adams' refusal to appear in her initial arraignment hearing is "a technical irregularity within our case law," and said that's how it is ruled.
Tackett said the judge will likely bring the defendant in, in-person, in an attempt to complete the arraignment. Tackett added that if Adams refuses to appear, or makes it impossible for the judge to read her the charges, and the judge has tried to hand her a copy of the charges and she doesn't enter a plea, then a mental exam would likely be ordered.
Tackett said "the arraignment will have taken place or a reasonable attempt to do that," will not justify a retrial, or a reversal.
Adams was arrested and charged on Wednesday after an investigation that started at the University of Missouri and led to police finding a burning body in a residential area far from campus.
The investigation started when University of Missouri police officers were sent to Hudson Hall at about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday 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.
Police couldn't identify the body because of its condition, police said.
Adams allegedly told police she stabbed the victim in self-defense. Police located blood on a vehicle at the scene, inside the house and in the backyard, the statement says. A cellphone matching the description of the victim's was found immersed in water in a sink and an officer saw part of a missing mattress burning in the fire pit, according to the documents.
Investigators found a bloody folding pocket knife in the kitchen, the statement says. CPD said investigators think they know who the person is, but for now will call the victim John Doe. Next of kin will be informed after the body is identified. A name will be released after that.
