http://www.lafayettecountymo.com/P-61/Prosecuting-Attorney.aspx

Lafayette County Prosecutor, PO Box 70, Lexington, MO (2026)

07/17/2026

DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR ASSAULT AND AGGRAVATED FLEEING

Sawnen Wah, 18, of Indianapolis, Indiana, was found guilty of Assault of a Law Enforcement Officer in the Second Degree, Aggravated Fleeing and Tampering with a Motor Vehicle in the First Degree following a guilty plea handled by Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney, Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner. The defendant was sentenced to ten years on the Assault of a Law Enforcement Officer, ten years on the Aggravated Fleeing and five years on the Tampering with a Motor Vehicle, with that time to be served in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

The charges arose after a trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol observed a stolen vehicle traveling eastbound on Interstate 70. When the trooper attempted to pull over the stolen vehicle being driven by the defendant, the defendant accelerated away at speeds of approximately 120 miles per hour. Officers with the Odessa Police Department set up in the median of the Interstate to deploy a tire deflation device to stop the defendant from fleeing at these extremely dangerous speeds. As the defendant approached where the officer was standing to deploy the device, the defendant drove directly at the officer, causing the officer to flee to avoid being struck by the defendant. The officer was injured while fleeing, due to the defendant’s actions. The defendant continued to run from law enforcement at varying speeds, at one point losing control of the vehicle while driving through the median and passing other motorists on the right shoulder through a construction zone. Due to the extreme danger the defendant was causing in heavy traffic, the trooper discontinued the pursuit. However, Lafayette County deputies were able to monitor the defendant’s vehicle from the outer road and were able to re-initiate the pursuit on Interstate 70 when traffic cleared. Tire deflation devices were deployed by the Higginsville Police Department, which flattened both driver’s side tires. After continuing to drive on the flat tires for several miles, the tires became completely detached but the defendant continued traveling at speeds near 100 miles per hour while driving on only two wheels. The pursuit continued across Saline County and entered Cooper County. Eventually, the defendant struck a tire deflation device that caused the defendant to lose control of the vehicle. He skidded into the median, overturned the vehicle and was ejected, coming to rest in the westbound lanes of the interstate, where he was taken into custody. The vehicle was confirmed to be stolen out of Omaha, Nebraska. The defendant did not have a license.

At the plea and sentencing hearing, Prosecutor Hilbrenner recommended a lengthy sentence in the Department of Corrections, noting the defendant’s extremely dangerous behavior, which resulted in injuries to one officer but could have easily resulted in a much worse outcome. Judge Josh Taylor followed the recommendation of the State and sentenced the defendant to serve his time in the Department of Corrections. Following the plea, Hilbrenner stated, “This defendant chose to flee from law enforcement on Interstate 70 in the middle of the day, when numerous other motorists were present and could have been seriously injured or killed due to the defendant’s actions. There is simply no excuse for putting the lives of so many people at risk. Thanks to the diligence and excellent teamwork of numerous law enforcement agencies in our county, this dangerous individual is off the road and removed from the community for a very long time.”

06/29/2026

ODESSA MAN SENTENCED FOR POSSESSING CHILD PO*******HY

William Mort, 32, of Odessa, Missouri, appeared before Judge Josh Taylor, in the Lafayette County Circuit Court and entered pleas of guilty to six counts of the Class B Felony of Possession of Child Po*******hy. Lafayette County Prosecutor, Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner, represented the State at the plea and sentencing. By pleading guilty the defendant admitted to possessing moving images or videos of obscene materials involving children under the age of eighteen as participants in s*xually explicit conduct.

The charges against Mort arose out of an investigation conducted by the Odessa Police Department after they were contacted by a Cyber Crime Task Force Unit that flagged images received by Mort as suspected child po*******hy. When an officer with Odessa interviewed the defendant, Mort admitted that the email address and username linked to the images belonged to him. The defendant also provided electronic devices that were searched by law enforcement. Hundreds of images and numerous videos that contained child po*******hy were located on those devices.

The defendant was facing a maximum of 15 years on each of the Class B Felonies. At the time of the plea, Mort was sentenced to 10 years on Counts I-V and 8 years on Count VI to run consecutively, for a total of 18 years. He was remanded to the custody of the Sheriff for transport to the Missouri Department of Corrections to serve his sentence. After the plea, Prosecutor Hilbrenner said, “Although this defendant had no prior criminal history, I felt this was the type of case where prison time was the only just outcome. We are pleased Judge Taylor agreed and sentenced the defendant accordingly. The defendant may not have personally coerced these very young children into posing for pictures or performing for the videos, but every single time he viewed any of the images, he was re-victimizing each child. This type of behavior deserves harsh punishment, and thanks to the hard work of law enforcement, that is exactly what he got.”

06/17/2026

HIGGINSVILLE MAN SENTENCED TO PRISON

James Looney, 43, Higginsville, Missouri, was sentenced to serve time in the Missouri Department of Corrections on June 15, 2026. The sentencing followed his guilty plea to the class D felony of Possession of Child Po*******hy, the class E felony of Tampering with Physical Evidence, the class E felony of Sexual Contact with a Student, the class B misdemeanor of Sexual Misconduct in the First Degree and the class C misdemeanor of Sexual Misconduct in the Third Degree on May 18, 2026. The case was previously set for jury trial in May. The defendant’s plea allowed the child victims to not have to testify during a trial. The State was represented by Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney, Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner, at both the plea and sentencing hearing.

Charges were brought after a student notified administrators at Lafayette County C-1 that she was fearful of the defendant, who was at that time a janitor at the school, because the defendant asked the student for her social media contact and gave the student his Snapchat handle. Upon learning this information, school administrators contacted the School Resource Officer, who escorted the defendant from the building and then conducted his criminal investigation. During that investigation, the officer learned that another student had visited a friend at defendant’s residence, at which time the defendant touched the breast of that student. Defendant later received a video from the student that included child po*******hy. When the defendant was confronted by law enforcement and asked to surrender his phone to search for evidence of the child po*******hy, defendant admitted he had attempted to delete apps from his phone that might contain that evidence. However, the video that was sent to the defendant was still able to be located on the defendant’s phone. There was also additional evidence that defendant had contacted a third victim and sent her a picture of his p***s. The defendant also requested pictures from the third victim, which she did not send.

At sentencing, Prosecutor Hilbrenner argued that the defendant is clearly a danger to the community as evidenced by the charges he pled guilty to. She pointed out that the victims in this case deserved to feel safe at school and this defendant took that away from them. Prosecutor Hilbrenner also stated that the defendant showed a complete lack of remorse or concern for the victims but instead took the position that he was the victim of being set up by the school and by law enforcement. The State asked the court to sentence the defendant to seven years, three years, three years, 90 days and 15 days on the five counts. The defense attorney argued for probation in the community, citing the defendant’s relative lack of criminal history and that the defendant has been incarcerated in the Lafayette County Jail since charges were filed in March of 2025.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Josh Taylor agreed with the State that defendant should be incarcerated for these offenses and sentenced the defendant to five years, four years and two years in the Department of Corrections, as well as 90 days and 10 days in jail on the misdemeanor counts. During his pronouncement of sentence, Judge Taylor also informed the defendant that he will be placed on the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry as a result of his crimes. In the State of Missouri, convictions on these types of crimes will also require the defendant to register as a s*x offender when he is released from the Department of Corrections.

06/16/2026

Lexington Man Pleads Guilty to So**my, Sexual Exploitation of a Child and Possession of Child Po*******hy

LEXINGTON, MO – Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Hillbrener announces that Jose Zuniga, 44, of Lexington, Missouri pled guilty on June 1, 2026, to four counts of the unclassified felony of Statutory So**my, four counts of the class A felony of Sexual Exploitation of a Child and one count of the class B felony of Possession of Child Po*******hy. Per the plea agreement, the defendant was sentenced to a total of 50 years in the Department of Corrections, with him being statutorily required to serve at least eighty-five percent of sentence prior to being eligible for parole.

Charges were filed in February of 2025, after law enforcement had been notified that the defendant possibly possessed child po*******hy. A search warrant was served on the defendant’s residence and child po*******hy was located. A child was identified in some of the images and videos and the child disclosed during a forensic interview, conducted at Child Safe in Sedalia, that she had been photographed by the defendant. To protect the privacy of the victim, no further information will be provided.

Following the plea, Prosecutor Hilbrenner stated that the plea agreement for fifty years balances the justice the victim deserves with the desire to protect the victim from any further trauma by requiring the child to testify in a trial. “While I believe most of us would like to see defendants who cause children this type of harm get as many years in prison as possible, part of my job is considering whether taking a case to trial in order to possibly get a longer sentence is worth the risk of causing the child to suffer even more trauma. In this case, we believe the outcome protects the child from having to go through a trial, but also ensures the defendant will serve at least eighty-five percent of a very lengthy sentence. He is right where he needs to be, away from this victim and any other children, for a very long time.”

This investigation began because individuals in the community believed something harmful was going on so they reported it to law enforcement. You can help protect children from abuse and neglect by knowing the warning signs and reporting suspected abuse. To report suspected abuse, please call the Missouri Child Abuse Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-392-3738.

05/29/2026

COURT OF APPEALS AFFIRMS TRIAL COURT DECISION

On May 26, 2026, the Missouri Court of Appeals issued a memorandum opinion affirming the conviction of Shane Smith, 56, of Mayview, Missouri. This followed oral arguments in front of the Court of Appeals on May 5, 2026. Smith had been found guilty of two counts of statutory so**my and one count of s*xual misconduct involving a child following a trial on December 19, 2024. The trial took place in Saline County after Smith requested a change of venue. He was sentenced to ten years on Count I, fifteen years on Count II to run consecutively and two years on Count III in the Missouri Department of Corrections on March 20, 2025. The State was represented at the trial and at sentencing by Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney, Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner. On appeal, the State was represented by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which is the standard practice on all felony appeals in Missouri.

On appeal, Smith complained that the trial court committed plain error in accepting Smith’s voluntary waiver of a jury trial. While a defendant has a right to a jury trial, he may waive that right in favor of a bench trial. That waiver must come from the defendant and must be voluntary. Although Smith offered a written waiver to the court and agrees that the court questioned him about the waiver on the record, Smith contends the waiver was not specific enough and the court committed plain error by accepting it. The Court of Appeals rejected that argument, stating that the trial court questioned Smith regarding that waiver and accepted the written waiver signed by Smith in accordance with Missouri law. The Court stated: “The trial court did not commit error, plain or otherwise, in accepting Smith’s waiver of the right to trial by jury.”

In his second point on appeal, Smith claimed that the trial court committed plain error in admitting testimony from the victim’s counselor. The Court rejected this claim and noted it was not persuaded by Smith’s arguments and that Smith did not establish that the trial court committed error regarding the counselor’s challenged testimony.

In its judgement, the Court of Appeals noted that Smith did not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions. Both points on appeal were denied, and the trial court’s decision was affirmed.

05/15/2026

REPEAT ROBBERY OFFENDER SENTENCED

On May 11, 2026, Louis Patti, 42, of Camden, Missouri, appeared before the Honorable Judge Josh Taylor in the Circuit Court of Saline County and was sentenced to serve 20 years for Robbery in the First Degree and 12 years for Unlawful Possession of a Firearm. Patti had previously pled guilty to these charges after requesting a change of venue, which took the case from Lafayette County to Saline County. Representing the State at the plea and sentencing hearing was Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney, Kristen Ellis Hilbrenner.

This case arose after officers from the Lexington Police Department were dispatched to the Minutemen Pharmacy in Lexington on September 11, 2025 at approximately 12:15 pm for an armed robbery in progress. When officers arrived there, they found numerous victims who were present during the robbery. Those witnesses recounted to law enforcement how a male subject wearing a grey hoodie, a mask, dark colored pants, white shoes and gloves had come into the pharmacy, pointed a gun at them, and demanded all the “oxy” in the pharmacy be placed into a bag he provided them. Patti took only Oxycodone and Oxycontin from the pharmacy, leaving all other controlled substances and any currency or other valuables behind. He then fled the pharmacy and ran across the street to the car wash.

A witness at the car wash saw Patti get into his vehicle and flee the scene. That witness was able to provide law enforcement with a description of the vehicle and the direction the vehicle was traveling. A trooper with the Missouri State Highway Patrol observed a vehicle matching that description heading north on 13 Highway, traveling at a high rate of speed. When the trooper conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle being driven by Patti, the suspect’s vehicle traveled off the road and got stuck. The vehicle was searched and officers found the stolen medications, gloves, a note that had directions to pharmacy in Lexington and a G***k 19 handgun. Patti was then placed under arrest and transported to the Lafayette County Jail.

At sentencing, Prosecutor Hilbrenner recounted to the court the defendant’s criminal history which included prior Federal convictions for two counts of Robbery in the First Degree from banks and two counts of Pharmaceutical Robbery and for Possession of a Controlled Substance out of Platte County, Missouri. The prosecutor argued a large sentence should be imposed because of the defendant’s history of the exact same conduct but more importantly because of the trauma he inflicted on at least five victims who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when this convicted felon decided to use a loaded firearm to take what didn’t belong to him. Judge Taylor then pronounced sentences of 20 years and 12 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

After the sentencing hearing, Hilbrenner had the following comments: “This was a case that was solved and prosecuted because of the victims’ and witness’s ability and willingness to cooperate with law enforcement. Quick work by the Lexington Police Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol allowed the wrongdoer to be almost immediately captured. Without their efforts, a repeat felony offender may have been free to rob again. Fortunately, the victims and all of Lafayette County can rest easy knowing that this very dangerous individual is off the streets and won’t be free anytime soon to victimize anyone else.”

04/11/2026

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and today, the Prosecutor's Office, along with our friends from law enforcement, CASA, Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA), elected officials, courthouse personnel, and the legal community joined us to recognize victims of child abuse and raise awareness for prevention.

Today, those in attendance planted pinwheels on the Lafayette County Courthouse lawn. Pinwheels are the symbol of child abuse awareness that represent what a joyful, carefree childhood should be. As reports of child abuse increase each year, it is more important than ever to fight for and protect our most vulnerable victims.

Please join us in supporting the survivors and thanking those who fight for them by planting pinwheels and wearing blue throughout the month of April. And remember, prevention and protection of our children starts with us listening and believing. 💙

03/27/2026

MAN CONVICTED OF STATUTORY R**E SENTENCED TO SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS

LEXINGTON, MO – Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Hillbrener announces that Martin Constante, Jr, 38, of Lexington, Missouri was convicted on February 5, 2026, of two counts of statutory r**e and one count of possession of child po*******hy, along with two other felonies. At trial, evidence was introduced that Constante committed these acts at a hotel located in Lexington as well as at a local orchard. Numerous witnesses testified over the course of the three-day trial, which was litigated by Prosecutor Kristen Hilbrenner.

Charges were filed in January of 2023, after the child disclosed during a forensic interview, conducted at Child Safe in Sedalia, that she had been r**ed on more than one occasion by the defendant. The mother of the child located photographs of the victim on the phone belonging to the defendant, and she turned the phone over to law enforcement. Officers then scheduled a forensic interview of the child, which led to the arrest and prosecution of Constante.

Following the guilty verdict, at the sentencing hearing on March 16, 2026, the prosecutor asked for the maximum sentences on each of the counts, arguing that these types of heinous crimes deserve nothing less than the maximum. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Honorable Joshua P. Taylor sentenced the defendant to the maximum: thirty years on each of the statutory r**e counts and to seven years on the possession of child po*******hy count, with all of those sentences to run consecutively. The defendant was sentenced to four years on the remaining counts, with those sentences to run concurrently. The end result was a total of sixty-seven years in the Department of Corrections.

This case is another example of the Lafayette County Prosecutor’s Office taking disclosures of child s*xual abuse seriously and pursuing justice when the evidence supports prosecution. “These types of cases are awful for everyone involved. It is traumatic for the victims and their families to have to live through. It is difficult for law enforcement to investigate these cases, as there is rarely any physical evidence or witnesses because these types of crimes are typically committed in secret, behind closed doors, when no one else is around. And it is awful for the juries to have to hear about these types of brutal crimes being committed against our children. However, these victims deserve justice, so it is worth every resource we have and every ounce of effort it takes to pursue that justice on their behalf”, said Ms. Hilbrenner.

You can help protect children from abuse and neglect by knowing the warning signs and reporting suspected abuse. To report suspected abuse, please call the Missouri Child Abuse Hotline 24/7 at 1-800-392-3738.

03/27/2026

CHARGES FILED IN CASE INVOLVING SEXUAL
CONTACT BETWEEN SCHOOL EMPLOYEE AND STUDENT

The Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announces that criminal charges have been filed in connection with an investigation involving a school employee and an 18-year-old student.
Following a referral and subsequent review of the reports provided by Lexington Police Department, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged Ashley Dobson, a school employee, with s*xual contact with a student, in violation of Missouri law.
Under Missouri law, specifically Section 566.086, RSMo, it is a criminal offense for a school employee to engage in s*xual contact with a student, regardless of whether the student has reached the age of 18. The law recognizes the inherent imbalance of authority and trust in such relationships and prohibits this conduct to protect students.
The alleged conduct occurred off school grounds but falls within Missouri statute due to the nature of the relationship between the school employee and the student.
This case remains under investigation. All individuals charged with a crime are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
The Lafayette County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office remains committed to protecting the safety and well-being of students and holding individuals accountable when they violate the law.

03/05/2026

The Prosecutor's Office, along with the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office and the Lafayette County Health Department, hosted the First Impact Teen Driving Program tonight. It covered so many aspects of what teens need to know to become safe, responsible drivers. And it addressed how it has to be teens and their parents working together to help prepare them for the responsibility of getting behind the wheel.

I highly recommend this program to anyone who has teenagers who will soon be driving. If you couldn't make it tonight, there is another class tomorrow night in Waverly at their City Hall at 6:00 pm. Or be on the lookout for the program coming to Higginsville soon!

Lafayette County Prosecutor

07/17/2026

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