A longtime mid-Missouri judge will not seek re-election in 2024. 13th judicial Circuit Judge Kevin Crane made his announcement in a Wednesday afternoon news release, saying it’s been a privilege and honor to serve the citizens of Boone and Callaway counties for the past 34 years. He says it’s now time to do something else.
Mr. Crane was elected judge in 2006, replacing then-Judge Ellen Roper. He’s finishing his third six-year term, which expires at the end of 2024. Judge Crane is a Boone County native who graduated from Mizzou’s School of Law in 1987. He served as an assistant attorney general for three years before becoming a Boone County assistant prosecutor in 1990. Crane became the Boone County prosecutor in 1993 and remained in that position until 2006, when he was elected judge.
Judge Crane presided over the high-profile Lynlee Renick murder trial in December 2021. He also prosecuted July 4, 1998 Columbia Ruby Tuesday double homicide suspects Earl Ringo and Quentin Jones. Jones testified against Ringo at the trial, and Ringo was later executed.
Crane also prosecuted Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson for the 2001 murder of “Columbia Daily Tribune” sports editor Kent Heitholt. Erickson testified against co-defendant Ferguson in 2005, but later recanted and testified that Ferguson was innocent. The courts overturned Ferguson’s murder conviction in 2013, and Ferguson was freed from the maximum-security Jefferson City Correctional Center (JCCC).
