A Boone County judge is expected to set a trial date soon for a high-profile Columbia murder suspect accused of throwing a woman to her death last October from a highway overpass near Clark lane’s Steak ‘n Shake.
Boone County Circuit Judge Brouck Jacobs has scheduled a status hearing for next Friday (December 15) morning at the Boone County Courthouse. Online court records indicate that Judge Jacobs will set the case for trial, if the case is not resolved next Friday.
Boone County prosecutors have charged 33-year-old Jessie Williams with first degree murder. The Columbia Police Department’s probable cause statement says 24-year-old Kaylen Ann Schmit was thrown 38 feet to her death in October 2022. CPD’s probable cause statement says Schmit suffered severe spine injuries and internal bleeding from the fall from the Highway 63 overpass.
One witness quoted in court documents tells CPD detectives that he saw Williams and the victim in a nearby homeless camp less than 30 minutes before the incident, and that Schmit was trying to get some belongings back from Williams. After Williams was captured outside Columbia’s Sam’s Club after the October 2022 murder, CPD detectives say he became combative with officers while inside the Columbia police station. The probable cause statement says Williams has multiple arrests for resisting arrest and has been arrested in multiple states.
Williams was paroled from prison in August 2022, less than two months before Schmit’s murder. He served four years of a seven year prison sentence for the brutal 2018 attack of an elderly Columbia homeless man inside a tent.
