Who is Jeffrey McWilliams? 'Restaurant Impossible' star charged with second-degree murder in cold case
A restaurant owner who participated in Food Network's 'Restaurant Impossible' has reportedly been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in a cold case.
Jeffrey McWilliams, 28, from Colombia, Missouri, was apprehended on Tuesday, May 11. Besides second-degree murder, he was additionally charged with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action over his alleged role in the December 2017 murder of Augustus Roberts, Deadline reported.
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McWilliams, who waived his arraignment in court on Wednesday, May 12, is currently remanded in custody at the Boone County Jail without bail. The judge presiding over his case granted a bond investigation and scheduled a hearing on May 18.
In July 2019, McWilliams appeared on 'Restaurant Impossible' when host Robert Irvine gave his family's restaurant McLanks a revamp, saving the establishment from shutting down. According to Deadline, the eatery was later featured in an August 2020 episode of the spinoff 'Restaurant Impossible: Back in Business', in which Irvine helped restaurants save their businesses amid the ongoing health crisis.
McWilliams' restaurant McLanks serves "American comfort food" and was founded by the suspect, his four siblings, and their mother Sheila Lankford. They opened their restaurant doors to customers in December 2017 -- ominously the same month Roberts was murdered.
Speaking to the authorities, a witness claimed that she saw three people wearing ski masks who forced their way into Roberts' residence on December 11, 2017, and assaulted him. She said she ran away after hearing gunshots.
According to the Columbia Missourian, investigators believe the home invasion and subsequent homicide were drug-related as Roberts was involved in a high-grade marijuana trafficking operation. The outlet revealed that around 800 pounds of marijuana were recovered from a U-Haul truck parked in his driveway.
DEA agent Steve Mattas said in an affidavit that a probe was launched after the “drug-related death” of Roberts, 28, who was renting a home on Lasso Circle in Old Hawthorne, the same place his body was discovered. “The investigation revealed Roberts was involved in trafficking high-grade marijuana and was killed during a home invasion where approximately 800 pounds of high-grade marijuana was stolen from a U-Haul truck parked in his driveway,” Mattas said in his affidavit.
According to the document, the U-Haul was driven from the scene by one of the suspects and abandoned at the end of a cul-de-sac nearby. Authorities found "approximately 94 pounds of high-grade marijuana" and "3,199 THC oil pens" in a bedroom closet at Roberts’ residence and in the U-Haul, the affidavit said.
"Four years to solve a homicide which I feel like is a little lengthy to come to fruition," Jerry Fleming, who lives on the same street where the homicide took place, told KOMU. He said he was new to Columbia at the time of the murder. "I was very much amazed because after living in the city of Chicago, where I had no problems, here's a homicide, committed four doors from my house in Columbia, Missouri," Fleming noted. "It was a little disheartening," he added.