A Boone County Circuit Judge is considering whether to allow a privately appointed doctor to perform a mental health evaluation on Emma Adams, who is accused of killing an MU student in January and burning his body in a fire pit.
Judge Jeff Harris said during a hearing Tuesday that he will consider a defense motion to appoint Dr. John Rabun, a psychiatry specialist in St. Louis, to conduct an evaluation.
During the hearing, Adams’ defense attorney Jeffrey Hilbrenner asked whether doctors performing evaluations must be employed by the government.
Harris clarified that doctors must be appointed by the court, but public or private employment is not a consideration.
The prosecution objected to the motion, arguing that privately appointed doctors can be subject to partisanship. The prosecution also argued that responsibility for a crime should fall on the defendant regardless of competence.
Hilbrenner countered by saying, “There are traumatic mental health issues at play here.”
Adams, 21, was arrested after a welfare check on an MU student sent MU police to a north Columbia home Jan. 11 where they found smoldering remains in a backyard fire pit.
In a probable cause statement, police reported that Adams told them she stabbed the man after he assaulted her.
Six days after Adams was arrested, police identified the student as Samuel Clemons, 21, a sophomore studying biology and genomic research. He was a 2020 graduate of Jefferson City High School.
To locate him after he was reported missing in January, police used information from his university swipe card and his cellphone, as well as video provided by the university showing him getting into an Uber.
Police contacted Uber and submitted an emergency information request to determine where the missing student was taken.
The probe led police to the 2400 block of Bentley Court, a neighborhood near Creasy Springs Road just east of Cosmopolitan Park.
Adams faces four charges: murder in the second degree, armed criminal action, tampering with physical evidence and abandonment of a corpse.
She pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held in Boone County Jail since her arrest on $1 million cash bond.
Another hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. next Monday was postponed until July 18.
