A high-profile Columbia murder trial that was originally scheduled to start Tuesday morning at the Boone County Courthouse has been delayed until September.
Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane has delayed former Columbia resident Staffone Fountain’s jury trial until September 24.
A Boone County grand jury has indicted the 32-year-old Fountain for second degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child and abandonment of a corpse. The indictment replaced the earlier first degree murder charge. The indictment alleges that Fountain struck or placed his infant daughter Samone Daniels “in an unsafe sleeping environment or by a combination of striking S.J.D. and placing S.J.D. in an unsafe sleeping environment,” causing the child’s death.
The infant’s remains were discovered in 2019 in a tire near Columbia’s North Providence, near McKnight Tire. Then-Columbia Police chief Geoff Jones announced the charges against Fountain during an emotional June 2022 press conference at city hall. Then-chief Jones told reporters that the infant’s murder had been difficult for CPD officers and investigators.
Fountain is represented by well-known Columbia defense attorney Jennifer Bukowsky. Veteran Boone County assistant prosecutor Susan Boresi is prosecuting the case.