Baby sitter, friend held in infant shooting

The Columbia duo arrested in connection with the shooting of an 11-month-old baby in a mobile home on Saturday were being held in the Boone County Jail on Monday on multiple charges.

Robert E. Wallace, 17, was charged with second-degree assault, armed criminal action and first-degree endangering the welfare of a child. His bond was set at $60,000.

Shauntoryia C. Jones, 20, was charged with first-degree child endangerment and was being held on $50,000 bond.

Sgt. Ken Hammond of the Columbia Police Department’s major crimes unit said Jones is a relative of the baby’s mother, who was away from the mobile home in Pine Grove Village, 3900 Clark Lane, when the incident occurred. He declined to say why the weapon was fired.

According to the probable cause statement, Wallace told police after the incident that he was playing with the gun when the weapon fired. The child was in the arms of Jones, who was baby-sitting the child.

Police said they do not think the shooting was intentional.

“We don’t believe he was aiming the gun at the child,” Hammond said. “That doesn’t mean that a crime did not happen.”

Both Wallace and Jones’ preliminary hearings were scheduled for Feb. 13 in Boone County Circuit Court.

Wallace pleaded guilty in October in Boone County Circuit Court to first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle and received five years’ supervised probation. In December, he was charged in Boone County Circuit Court with distributing or delivering not more than five grams of marijuana. That charge was still pending Monday.