Sweeping crime bill with harsher penalties for juveniles sent to Missouri governor
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Raises portion of sentence offenders must serve before parole eligibility
- Allows certifying 14+ youths as adults for certain felonies or 3 felonies/6 months
- Supporters cite repeat offender risk; opponents cite $869m prison cost.
A bill that Republican lawmakers say could have stopped the then-teenaged Chiefs rally shooter from being released and reoffending is awaiting the Governor’s signature.
The sweeping criminal justice bill increases penalties for sexual trafficking and child-related offenses, adds additional crimes to the definition of a “dangerous felony,” and requires offenders to serve more of their sentences before being eligible for parole.
It would also overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system, easing the pathway for juveniles to be tried as adults. Children over the age of 14 may be confirmed as adults if they’ve committed specific serious felonies or three felonies within six months.
It would also require juvenile officers to consult with prosecutors for any offense where a child could be certified as an adult.
House Speaker Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said the bill may have prevented a case like Asere Mekenon, who was 16 years old when he fired a gun after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally in 2024. Mekenon was one of two juveniles who fired weapons after the victory rally in a gun fight that killed one and injured dozens.
Last month, Mekenon was charged with first-degree robbery after he allegedly pressed a gun to a man’s back and stole their firearm at a gas station on Troost Avenue.
“Would this bill have prevented that?” Patterson said. “I get it, he was a teenager. But if you’re old enough to go to a parade and start shooting it, should you be tried as an adult?”
Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said that she couldn’t speak about the pending criminal case against Mekenon, but that being able to charge him as an adult could’ve changed the outcome.
“Had he been certified as an adult due to his conduct stemming from the Chiefs’ parade shooting, I can’t help but think we might have been in a different position moving forward,” Johnson told The Star.
Jackson County prosecutors already consult with juvenile justice officers before asking the juvenile officer to certify a juvenile as an adult, Johnson said. But the process, which takes into account the severity of the offense, the child’s upbringing, age, and criminal record, can be burdensome, she said.
Johnson noted the murder of Shaun Brady, an Irish-born chef killed outside of his restaurant Brady and Fox in 2024. The shooter was not certified as an adult despite the offense being “heinous.”
“If I’m being completely honest, it is pretty difficult in a very limited and select circumstances where a young person is certified as an adult,” she said.
Ending the revolving door of repeat offenders
In Jefferson City, lawmakers supporting the bill argued that the state’s juvenile system has been consistently releasing individuals who are likely to reoffend.
“Each time they’re put back on the street, time and time again, they don’t even have a slap on the wrist. They go back to, whether it’s the criminal gang, the enterprise they’re hanging with, they know that they’re getting away with it,” Sen. Nick Schroer, a Defiance Republican who introduced the bill, testified in a committee hearing.
Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, has until March 27 to sign it, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.
“Senate Bill 888 will help end the revolving door of repeat offenders in the juvenile justice system and bring greater clarity to the courtroom through sentencing reform,” Kehoe said.
The bill passed both the House and Senate mostly along partisan lines. House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat, said she doesn’t support the intent to incarcerate more people, especially at a high cost when the state is considering budget cuts.
“This $869 million price tag was to build more prisons to incarcerate more people,” Aune said. “Not only can Missouri not afford it, but they just came out and said, we just want to build more beds to incarcerate more people.”
In the 2010s, several states sought to integrate aspects of Missouri’s youth criminal justice model. A study The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which studies barriers to success for children, found Missouri children had lower recidivism rates, more advancement in school and fewer assaults on correctional staff that juvenile inmates in other states.
“I think what this bill is going to do is end up incarcerating more youth into the adult system,” said Sheena Rogers, executive director of Show Me Justice for All, an advocacy organization focused on prisoners’ rights. “We’re going to have to build two more prisons within by 2029, which is going to cost Missouri taxpayers $869 million.”
Prosecutor defends plea agreement
Two men accused of firing shots after the 2024 Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory rally are still awaiting trial. Lyndell Mays and Terry Young both face identical charges of second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of armed criminal action.
Young’s trial is set for April 17, while Mays’ trial is scheduled for March 30, 2027.
Dominic Miller, who returned fire at Mays, reached a plea agreement earlier this month. Prosecutors agreed to drop the second-degree murder charge and allow Miller to plead guilty to one count of unlawful use of a weapon in an agreement. Miller was sentenced to two years with time served and was released on March 13.
Johnson, the Jackson County prosecutor, defended Miller’s plea agreement, saying that the state’s self-defense laws made it difficult to secure a conviction for a more serious crime against anyone who didn’t shoot first.
Three teens were charged for their role in the shooting, with two facing gun-related charges and the other accused of resisting arrest. In July 2024, Jackson County Administrative Judge Jennifer Philips ordered one of the defendants, a 15-year-old, to serve a term at a state facility for the charge of knowingly discharging a firearm.
The details of Mekenon and the other teenager were not available because they were juvenile offenders.
Rep. Will Jobe, an Independence Democrat, said the bill solves problems lawmakers created with its gun laws.
“It used to be that if you were out doing bad things with a gun, you stayed in detention,” Jobe said. “Once we changed the laws, that wasn’t available anymore.”
Bill could require new prisons
The new bill comes with a price tag of almost $870 million, most of which is attributed to the need for a new prison. The bill not only makes it easier to charge adolescents as adults, but it also extends sentences and ends conditional release for certain felonies, according to the legislation.
The bill would increase the length of prison time an offender would be required to serve before becoming eligible for parole. The increase in the prison population could require a new facility to meet the demand.
“Because of all of that increase in the system, they assume that three years out, they’ll have to build at least a new prison, maybe more than that. And that’s where I think the almost $900 million fiscal note comes from,” Jobe, the Independence Democrat, said.
Schroer, the Defiance Republican, said that he believes the fiscal note, which estimates the costs associated with legislation, is incomplete and doesn’t factor in cost savings elsewhere.
Rogers, the prisoners’ rights advocate, said the result is going to be longer prison sentences for people convicted of minor crimes, with more serious offenders already serving more time before being paroled.
“What’s going to happen with this bill is the (Class) C, D and E felons, the people who are lost in addiction, those are the people that’s going to end up doing the longer times in prison, because violent offenders are already doing 85% to 100% of their time,” Rogers said.
