A Monday morning arraignment has been set for a former Columbia resident charged with second degree murder for the 2017 death of his infant daughter.
A Boone County grand jury issued a superseding indictment on Friday, indicting 31-year-old Staffone Fountain for second degree murder, abandonment of a corpse and endangering the welfare of a child. The indictment replaces the earlier first degree murder charge.
There is new information in this indictment, alleging that Fountain struck or placed infant Samone Daniels “in an unsafe sleeping environment or by a combination of striking S.J.D. and placing S.J.D. in an unsafe sleeping environment,” causing the child’s death. The child’s sleeping environment was not mentioned in previous court documents.
The infant’s remains were found in a tire near Columbia’s North Providence in 2019, near McKnight Tire.
Fountain is represented by Columbia defense attorney Jennifer Bukowsky.
Then-Columbia Police chief Geoff Jones announced the charges against Fountain during an emotional June 2022 press conference at city hall. Then-chief Jones told reporters that the infant’s murder had been difficult for CPD officers and investigators. The chief also told 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” the next morning that there were indications that Fountain wanted to kill the infant previously.
