Homicide victim was trying ‘to make a new start’

The wife of murder victim Carlos Kelly said he was a broken man piecing together a new life for himself and his family.

Danielle Kelly, 28, said that by the time he was killed last week, he had decided to leave Columbia and join her in St. Louis, where they would both attend school.

"He had a whole new life he was about to start," she said in a telephone interview. "It’s so unbelievable that one day someone is here, and the next day he’s gone."

Carlos Kelly, 34, died early Wednesday in his apartment at 1311 Cynthia Drive of a single blow to the back of his head. Three men have been arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree murder in the slaying.

Travis Midgyett, 26, of 3705 Greeley Drive, Rodney Cunningham, 30, of 713 Cook Ave., and Felson Barney, 29, of 905 Clayton St. were arraigned yesterday in Boone County Circuit Court. Bond was set at $1 million each for Barney and Midgyett and $1.5 million for Cunningham because he also was being held on unrelated felony drug charges.

Columbia police Capt. Brad Nelson said the attack on Carlos Kelly was drug-related and that the victim was acquainted with his attackers, each of whom court records show had a history of criminal activity.

So did Carlos Kelly, who was released Oct. 1 from the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center where he had been sentenced to five years for first-degree property damage.

Brian Hauswirth, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Kelly began his five-year sentence in October 2000 and was paroled on Oct. 24, 2004. But he failed to comply with the stipulations of his parole and was taken back into custody Feb. 5, 2004. He was paroled a second time in September 2004 but once again returned to confinement in December 2004, Hauswirth said. He remained there until October.

Danielle Kelly has also had had some brushes with the law. Court records indicate she pleaded guilty in February in Boone County to three felony counts of distributing or attempting to distribute a controlled substance base d on charges filed in January 2004 and May and June of 2005.

Longtime family friend C.W. Dawson, a Riley Scholar-in-Residence in the philosophy and religion department at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., said he spoke with Carlos Kelly the last time he was in prison and Kelly had expressed a desire to change his life.

Danielle Kelly said her husband’s criminal record was making it difficult for him to get accepted at a school.

Dawson, a former pastor at Second Baptist Church in Columbia, is returning to Columbia tomorrow to preach at Carlos Kelly’s funeral. He also presided over Carlos and Danielle Kelly’s wedding in December 1995.

"I was kind of like a father-figure to him, and he would confide in me," Dawson said. "What I know about Carlos is he was going to leave Columbia to make a new start. … I really think he had made a turn in his life."

Danielle Kelly said her husband encouraged her to move to St. Louis and enroll in school. She declined to say which school she is attending in St. Louis, but she said her husband had already received his GED and would begin classes this spring at the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College. Admissions records from the school indicate that Carlos Kelly had not yet enrolled.

Morda Scott of Columbia, a friend of the couple, said Danielle Kelly was attending school and Carlos Kelly was planning on majoring in graphic art design.

Danielle Kelly said her husband had promised to visit her and take her out to dinner in St. Louis on the day he was killed. The couple has a 9-year-old son.

"We could have stayed here in Columbia, but we chose to move to make a better life," she said. "Carlos wanted his son to have a better life than he had."

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Reach Sara Agnew at (573) 815-1717 or sagnew@tribmail.com.

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