Court fixture Kevin Crane to not seek reelection in 2024

Charles Dunlap, Columbia Daily Tribune
Updated ·2 min read

A fixture behind the bench in the Boone and Callaway county 13th judicial circuit is stepping away from it at the end of next year.

Division 3 Circuit Judge Kevin Crane announced this week he will not seek reelection. Stephanie Morrell, currently the Division 11 associate circuit judge, announced her reelection campaign last month, specifically for the Division 3 seat.

She will face off against Jesus Osete who announced his campaign the same day Crane announced his retirement intentions. Osete currently is in private practice, but previously was a deputy attorney general, general counsel to the secretary of state, worked in the U.S. Senate and had clerkships for judges in the Missouri Supreme Court and federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, a news release noted.

While, by the end of his term as judge, Crane will have served 18 years as judge, his career in Boone County has spanned 34 years.

Boone County Circuit Judge speaks during a September 2021 Boone County Commission meeting. He announced this week that he will not seek reelection in 2024. He will have served 18 years on the bench by the end of his current term.
Boone County Circuit Judge speaks during a September 2021 Boone County Commission meeting. He announced this week that he will not seek reelection in 2024. He will have served 18 years on the bench by the end of his current term.

The first three years of his career he was an assistant attorney general before transitioning to a position as an assistant prosecutor in 1990 in Boone County. He was elected as the county's prosecuting attorney in 1993 through 2006 when he was elected as the Division 3 circuit judge, replacing Ellen Roper.

Crane also was the 13th judicial circuit presiding judge between 2016 and 2020. Division 1 Judge J. Hasbrouck Jacobs was elected to the presiding judgeship in 2021.

Possibly the most high-profile case of his career as a prosecutor was the Kent Heitholt murder trial. Heitholt was the Tribune's sports editor who was killed outside the former location of the Tribune offices Nov. 1, 2001.

Convictions would come in 2005 for Ryan Ferguson and Charles Erickson. Ferguson's conviction was vacated in 2013 based on Columbia Police Department evidence fabrication. He received an $11 million award in the civil rights case Crane was dismissed from prior to the verdict against the police department. Erickson was released from the Boonville Correctional Center in January on parole, having served 18 years.

Two significant cases Crane is presiding over in his final year are those of Ryan Delanty and Samuel Lane, both charged in the hazing of Danny Santulli from Oct. 19, 2021 at the now closed Phi Gamma Delta fraternity chapter at the University of Missouri. Delanty was to have his trial this month, but it was pushed back to April 30. Lane's trial was supposed to happen this week, but also is delayed. A case status hearing is set Feb. 26.

NOTE: This story was updated to reflect the announcement by private practice attorney Jesus Osete to seek the Division 3 judgeship. His announcement was received after this story had originally published.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Judge Kevin Crane will soon start last year on bench