ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Gov. Nixon met with caregivers at The Family Guidance Center in St. Joseph Thursday to detail his efforts to improve the health and safety of Missouri communities by expanding Missouri’s Strengthening Mental Health Initiative.

Gov. Nixon’s budget for Fiscal Year 2017 includes an increase of more than $40 million for services for Missourians with mental health and substance use disorders.

During his visit, the Governor also discussed plans to implement a Crisis Prevention Program for Missourians with severe mental illness and substance use disorders.

“Through our Strengthening Mental Health Initiative, thousands of Missourians have received the help and treatment they need to get well and stay safe,” Gov. Nixon said. “But there are many more Missourians who cannot afford these services, and are at real risk. My budget makes smart, strategic investments to help these Missourians get the care they need – before they reach a crisis point – making our communities healthier, safer and stronger.”

In 2013, Gov. Nixon said he called for a series of fiscally responsible measures to improve the way Missouri cares for individuals whose severe behavioral health conditions have gone untreated. Working with members of the General Assembly, the Governor secured $10 million annually for the Strengthening Mental Health Initiative in the Fiscal Year 2014, Fiscal Year 2015, and Fiscal Year 2016 budgets. This funding will continue and increase in Fiscal Year 2017.

The Strengthening Mental Health Initiative also included the placement of emergency room intervention teams in seven regions of the state, including coordination with 65 hospitals and health centers. Since their implementation, 2,917 individuals have been engaged in Emergency Room Enhancement services. Outcomes for individuals who have received services include a 58 percent decrease in ER visits and a 62 percent decrease in hospitalizations; a 66 percent decrease in homelessness; a 54 percent decrease in arrests; a 32 percent increase in employment; and a 119 percent increase in treatment program enrollment.

The Governor’s balanced budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2017, which he presented last week in his State of the State address, includes $1.6 million to expand the placement of these emergency room intervention teams to an additional two regions.

The Governor’s budget proposal also includes $5.4 million for a Crisis Prevention Program that will be launched later this year. The Crisis Prevention Program will serve approximately 2,000 low-income Missourians between the ages of 21 and 35 who have a severe mental illness or substance use disorders. The Crisis Prevention Program will link these Missourians with out-patient health care services and behavioral health services, and provide ongoing care coordination.

Eligible individuals will be able to access physical and behavioral health services, medications as well as employment services.

A man accused of playing a part in the stabbing death of a St. Joseph man found dumped in the Platte River last April entered an unexpected plea of guilty during a jury trial Wednesday.

A murder trial began Tuesday for Primalton Peterson, 23 of St. Joseph.  

Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins said the jury had been selected and witnesses had been scheduled when Peterson unexpectedly indicated to his lawyer that he wished to plead guilty.

Peterson pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him, including the lessor included offense of second-degree murder (correct), armed criminal action, and abandonment of a corpse. This was not a plea agreement.

Judge Daniel Kellogg scheduled sentencing March 7.

Peterson and two others were charged with stabbing Richard Berry to death and dumping Berry’s body in the third fork of the Platte River where he was later found.

Also charged were Kelli Hoard, 44 of Elwood, Kan. and Sean Liechti, 25 of St. Joseph.  Hoard pleaded guilty in October to a charge of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.  Leichti also pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Scroggins said Peterson could face 10-30 or life for the count of first-degree murder with a required 85-percent of the sentence served before he would be eligible for parole, 3 to an unlimited number of years for armed criminal action and one day to a maximum of four years on the charge of abandonment of a corpse.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled is scheduled for March 7th.

The St. Joseph Police Department is promoting an app with the hope of keeping neighborhoods a little safer.

Sgt. Greg Gilpin said he recently started promoting an app called Nextdoor.

“It’s kind of a way for a neighborhood to set up a webpage for just their group.  They get on their address and they literally draw the boundaries for their group and only people who live within those boundaries can join their group,” Gilpin said. “Once they do it’s a way for neighbors to communicate about what’s going on.”

The website claims its app is a way to find a last-minute babysitter, learn about an upcoming block party or hear about a rash of car break-ins.

“It’s just a way for information to get passed around your area,” Gilpin said. “It’s kind of like a Facebook page just for your area.  Because once you get the boundaries set only the people in the boundaries you set are allowed to participate.”

One neighborhood watch group in St. Joseph has already started using the app.

“The Bartlett group, they meet over at the Huffman church,” Gilpin said. “The leader of that group her relatives are actually in law enforcement and they helped her set it up.”

Gilpin adds that residents should still contact police to report a crime but that the app is a great way to stay connected and know what’s going on in your community.

“If they’ve had a recent rash of thefts or some car break-ins and they’ve seen a certain car or person loitering around the area they can put that out to the group,” Gilpin said.

Gilpin said he hopes more neighborhood watch groups will try out the app.

One local couple has big plans for shipping and receiving in St. Joseph.

Kim and Rhonda Blaylock are opening up a new store called Goin’ Postal which is a franchise for shipping and receiving.

“We think it’s a business that this city needs,” Kim said. “Where are you going to go and drop off a FedEx package except these boxes that are around town?”

Rhonda said they will offer DHL (international shipping), UPS, FedEx and regular postal services as well as other business related services. They said they will also offer mailbox rentals.

The business is going into 1/3rd of the old Leibowitz building in East Ridge Village.

The Blaylocks said they hope to be open for business by mid-March. Kim said after they open store hours will be Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

A helping hand is being sought by Hillcrest Transitional Housing.

Shannen White is the Director of Hillcrest and said the agency is looking for volunteers to do some handy work.

“We have a huge need right now with people that are just handy and want to do some hands-on volunteering down at the apartments,” White said. “All of our apartments are completely renovated and ready for families and we just have some little maintenance issues in some of them that we need to address and so the need for volunteers right now is vital. Even if you don’t have a lot of maintenance skills this is stuff that can be taught very easily.”

White said the work covers a wide-range of to-do’s

“We have a need for changing furnace filters, for changing out the batteries in the smoke alarms, installing handrails in the bathrooms just some very minor stuff that we need to get done,” White said.

Hillcrest Transitional Housing is a 90 day program that helps transition people out of homelessness.

“We help transition those suffering from severe poverty and homelessness into a state of self-sufficiency which means completely self-sufficient and off of government assistance, working full-time and being a productive citizen of St. Joseph, Missouri,” White said.

Currently, Hillcrest has 21 units, 19 of those units are used for families. White said just in 2015 the organization made a big difference.

“We graduated 22 adults and 33 children from homelessness to self-sufficiency, so the huge impacts that that has on our community of taking families out of poverty and into a position where they’re working full-time, shopping locally and giving back to our community is huge,” White said “Not only that but we’re also decreasing generation poverty where we can actually say we’re breaking that cycle and helping children in the long-term.”

White said she hopes to get a pool of people who can help with maintenance issues by the end of January.

“Just so that we can be at full capacity and be utilizing every single apartment by the end of this month. It’s been a goal of mine personally to get every apartment up and running so we can help more families become self-sufficient,” she said.

If someone wants to volunteer White said to give her a call at Hillcrest at (816) 351-5774.

A Kansas City woman is accused of fleeing from police while intoxicated with her two young children in the car and crashing her vehicle in Buchanan County.

Judy Montoya, 24 is charged in Platte County with a felony for resisting arrest and a misdemeanor for second degree endangering the welfare of a child.

According to court documents on Sunday around 11:38 Deputy Brian Hollandsworth with the Platte County Sheriff’s Department said he saw a white Cadillac traveling north on I-29 weave in and out of its lane.

“I activated the emergency lights and audible siren on my patrol vehicle and the Cadillac came to a stop on I-29 south of Z Highway.  The vehicle accelerated away from the stop location, and came to a second stop approximately one half mile north.  The vehicle fled a second time and continued north on I-29,” Hollandsworth said.

He said it reached speeds of 120 mph and passed vehicles in the median between the north and south bound lanes between Z Highway and US 169.

“On US 169 Highway in the area of T Highway in Buchanan County, the driver later identified as Judy Montoya extinguished the vehicle headlights and continued at excessive speeds,” Hollandsworth said.

Around midnight Monday the Cadillac was reported to have crashed on 169 south of E Highway in Buchanan County which is in-between Gower and St. Joseph.

“I contacted Montoya in the field where the car came to rest.  I placed Montoya under arrest and returned to the vehicle where her two minor children where secured inside,” Hollandsworth said.

A 5-year-old and  a 3-year-old were taken from the vehicle and evaluated by medical personnel. Sgt. Jake Angle with the MSHP said no one was injured in the crash.

“After she was advised of her Constitutional Rights by Miranda Warning, she stated she fled because she believed her driver’s license was suspended.  Montoya stated she was at a friend’s residence earlier in the evening and drank several shots of moonshine,” Hollandsworth said.

Court document state that Montoya said because her children refused to go to bed she drove them around to help them sleep.

“Approximately three and a half hours after the motor vehicle crash Montoya performed poorly on Standard Field Sobriety Tests and provided a breath sample of 0.076 BAC,” Hollandsworth said.

Montoya is being held in the Platte County Jail on $10,000 bond.