UPDATE: Columbia Waffle House murder suspect’s trial is a go for next week

By Zimmer Communications
leo robinson
52-year-old Leo Barry Robinson Jr. of Columbia is charged with second degree murder (undated photo courtesy of the Boone County Sheriff Department website)

A Columbia man charged with shooting and killing a man outside the Waffle House on Vandiver in 2021 will go on trial next week.

939 the Eagle News was at the Boone County Courthouse this (Monday) morning for 52-year-old Leo Robinson’s pre-trial conference.

Judge Brouck Jacobs tells both sides that he’ll call 65 prospective jurors to the courthouse next Wednesday, which is July 5. Boone County assistant prosecutor Anthony Gonzalez and public defender Daniel Hickman tell Judge Jacobs that they expect a two-day trial.

Robinson is charged with second degree murder and two other felonies for the March 2021 shooting death of Reginald Ball outside the Waffle House. The Columbia Police Department’s two-page probable cause statement says the killing happened during a verbal argument between Robinson and Ball, and that Ball kept telling Robinson to take his hand out of his pocket. The court document quotes a witness as saying that Robinson then got back in his vehicle and that Ball continued to tell him to take his hand out of his pocket. Court documents indicate Ball was then shot three times at close range and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Robinson appeared in court this morning via video from the Boone County jail, wearing a blue jail jumpsuit.