A highly-publicized Columbia murder trial will not start Monday morning in Columbia, after both sides learn that murder victim Megan Shultz was arrested on June 5, 2006, about two months before she was killed.
Boone County Circuit Judge Jeff Harris held a rare Saturday hearing at the Boone County Courthouse, and has approved murder suspect Keith Comfort’s motion to delay the trial. While specifics of the arrest report are unknown, Judge Harris says the arrest report “contains information that may be relevant” and that the defense may need more time for discovery, according to online court records.
939 the Eagle News was in the courtroom last week when defense attorney Kevin O’Brien told the court that the last person to see Megan before she died saw her strike her husband. Boone County assistant prosecutor Susan Boresi told the court that day that a slap across the face is no excuse for murder.
CPD’s probable cause statement quotes Comfort as telling police that his wife was frantic and swinging her arms at him, after she allegedly “ripped someone off” during a drug transaction. Comfort is quoted as telling detectives that he strangled his wife before placing her body in a black garbage bag, then throwing it into his Amelia street apartment dumpster near Old Highway 63.
