A Columbia man with a lengthy criminal history is jailed without bond this morning, charged with second degree murder and two other felonies for the Christmas Day killing of a woman he was in a relationship with.
Boone County prosecutors have charged 38-year-old Jeffrey Edward Skaggs with second degree murder, domestic assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
The Boone County Sheriff Department’s redacted one-page probable cause statement says deputies were dispatched to the 6000 block of East O’Rear road for a cardiac arrest early Christmas morning and found Skaggs with the dead 41-year-old woman, who has not been identified. The probable cause statement quotes Skaggs as admitting to assaulting the victim before she died. Court documents also say the woman’s cell phone captured a portion of the assault, allegedly showing Skaggs being the aggressor and assaulting the woman as she was holding her one-year-old.
Skaggs will be arraigned at 1 this afternoon before Boone County Circuit Judge Tracy Gonzalez. He’ll be arraigned via video, from the Boone County jail.
