A Columbia man with a lengthy criminal record has been sentenced to ten years in prison, for illegally owning a gun he used in the deadly 2023 Plush Lounge shootout on the Business Loop.
While a Boone County jury acquitted 35-year-old Kimo Spivey in June of first degree murder and multiple other felonies for the shooting death of 26-year-old Melvin Hooker III, they convicted him of felony unlawful possession of a firearm. That’s because he was a convicted felon at the time of the chaotic deadly shootout.
939 the Eagle News was in Boone County Circuit Court for Tuesday morning’s sentencing hearing. Spivey wore a black and white jail jumpsuit and sat next to defense attorney Joe Flees. Mr. Flees urged Judge Joshua Calvin Devine to sentence Spivey to seven years, describing Spivey as a husband and father who reflects daily on Mr. Hooker’s death. Flees also says Kimo Spivey is working to learn job skills to help him when he’s released from prison. Boone County assistant prosecutor Anthony Gonzalez disagrees, and he requested the maximum ten-year sentence, describing Spivey as dangerous. Prosecutor Gonzalez notes Spivey is a prior and persistent offender with four previous felony convictions and ten prior misdemeanor convictions.
Judge Devine sentences Spivey to the maximum ten-year sentence, with credit for 854 days in jail served. As two Boone County Sheriff’s deputies led the handcuffed Spivey out of the courtroom, he turned around and waved to his wife in the back of the courtroom, as best he could.
Counselor Flees tells Judge Devine he will not seek a new trial for Spivey.
Prosecution witness Steven Grimes, who worked security at Plush, testifies that the shootout that 2023 night near Columbia’s Business Loop “sounded like a war”, with numerous shots. Hooker was shot and killed near his vehicle and four others were wounded in the shootout, including Spivey.