KFAL The Big 900 Classic Country
A well-known Columbia restaurant owner charged with arson in southeast Missouri’s Kennett will make her initial court appearance Tuesday morning in Dunklin County Circuit Court.
43-year-old Crystal Umfress is charged in Dunklin County with second degree arson, a class D felony. Her initial arraignment will take place Tuesday morning at 9 before Dunklin County Circuit Judge John Spielman. Umfress was arrested on Thursday in Cape Girardeau and has been released after posting a $65,000 bond, according to online records from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department.
Online records from the sheriff’s department show Ms. Umfress was booked into the Cape Girardeau County jail at about 12:30 on Thursday afternoon and was released at about 6:30 pm after posting bond.
Dunklin County prosecutor Nicholas Jain confirms the arrest to 939 the Eagle.
Umfress, who owns Casa Maria’s Mexican cantina on Columbia’s Grindstone Parkway, has hired Poplar Bluff defense attorney Daniel Moore to represent her in the arson case in Kennett, which is in southeast Missouri’s Bootheel. Umfress will also have to be hooked up to electronic monitoring, and it’s unclear from court records if that equipment will be hooked up in Columbia or in southeast Missouri.
Counselor Moore has also filed a motion that says Umfress works at Casa Maria’s each day from 7 am until 11 pm, and notes her husband recently died in a horrific head-on crash on Columbia’s Stadium Boulevard. Moore says Umfress needs to make funeral arrangements and is now the sole caretaker of their children.
