93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
A Columbia man who killed a woman last November in a domestic violence incident on Blue Ridge road has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
32-year-old Montez Williams displayed no emotion in the courtroom as Boone County Circuit Judge Brouck Jacobs sentenced him on Friday afternoon. Williams, who was shackled, sat quietly in the courtroom during the sentencing hearing, whispering a few things to his defense attorney, Kevin O’Brien. He sat in the jury box as he waited for his sentencing hearing, wearing a Boone County jail jumpsuit. Two Boone County Sheriff’s deputies stood nearby.
Williams, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in November to second degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and to resting arrest in a plea agreement. The first degree murder charge was amended to second degree murder, which gives him an opportunity for parole.
Williams admits killing April Joann Brooks of Cuba, Missouri on Blue Ridge road in November 2022. She was found shot to death in a running vehicle. Williams was already a convicted felon at the time of the murder and legally could not possess a firearm. Brooks was shot to death last at night and her vehicle ran all night with the lights on with the body inside, according to the Columbia Police Department’s heavily-redacted probable cause statement.
There was a high-speed pursuit after Brooks’ murder. Court documents quote Williams as telling CPD detectives that he threw the silver handgun he used to kill Brooks out his car window, as CPD officers were pursuing his vehicle down Clark lane. By pleading guilty to second degree murder, Williams will be eligible for parole after serving 85 percent of his 30 year prison sentence. He’ll go before Missouri’s Probation and Parole Board after he’s served 85 percent.
