Month: March 2024

A man from Webster County is awaiting sentencing after he was found guilty of multiple counts of rape involving a child.

Investigators say 31-year-old Alan Gilliam was convicted by a jury on five counts of statutory rape this week.

He was accused of having multiple sexual “encounters” with a young girl for several years, from the time she was 12 until she was 17.

The investigation began after the victim became an adult and began remembering events while attending therapy. She then went to the Webster County Sheriff’s Office to tell her story.

Gilliam is the latest defendant to be tried and convicted in a group of eight being charged with child sex crimes.

He is being remanded to the Webster County Jail and will be officially sentenced June 10, 2024.

The United States Department of Justice is claiming sexual assault and Fair Housing Act violations against Springfield Landlord Jimmie Bell in a recent lawsuit.

The suit accuses Bell of offering reduced rent and repairs to tenants in exchange for sexual favors, making unwanted sexual advances towards tenants, sexually touching tenants without consent, and evicting tenants who refused his advances.

The Springfield Nightclubs “Zan” and “Boogie Cafe” have been closed permanently, according to one of the owners Mike Jalili, citing “safety concerns”.

Jalili says employees at the clubs are being offered jobs at other restaurants owned by Jalili. Zan has been the scene of several fights and other criminal activities for several years.

A man from Springfield who was convicted for the rape and killing of a teenage girl over a decade ago is now back in Greene County, attempting to have his death penalty sentence overturned.

Craig Wood was booked into the Greene County Jail on Friday, March 22, after spending several years at the Potosi Correctional Center.

Investigators say he kidnapped, raped, and murdered 10-year-old Hailey Owens on February 18, 2014.

He was sentenced to death by Greene County Judge Thomas Mountjoy in 2018 after the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision about whether to give him the death penalty, or a life sentence.

Wood attempted to appeal the death penalty sentence, but it was upheld by The Supreme Court of Missouri in July of 2019.

He is now back in Greene County for a three-day evidentiary hearing at the Greene County Circuit Court in yet another attempted to have the sentence overturned and the death penalty thrown out.

The hearing begins today and will conclude on Wednesday, March 27.

Branson Police are investigating a car crash that shut down traffic.

The two-vehicle crash happened around 11 AM Friday morning between Highway 248 and Bee Creek Road.

Officers found a 20-year-old woman dead in on vehicle.

The other driver was not injured.

Traffic had to be diverted while the crash was being investigated.

Branson Police have so far ruled out intoxication or reckless driving.

Modern Technology has lead to the closing of a cold case from the early 90’s in McDonald County.

Shawna Garber’s remains were found at an abandoned farmhouse near Lanagan in December of 1990. Investigators say she had been sexually assaulted before being murdered. Thursday, the McDonald County Sheriff’s Office announced that DNA evidence pointed to Talfey Reeves being the guilty party.

Reeves was long suspected in the case and was well known to law enforcement, but died in a car crash in 2021