A second man has been charged with first-degree murder in the July 12 shooting death of 28-year-old Jobori Bell inside a home in St. Louis' College Hill neighborhood. Kaylo Allison, also 28, now faces the same core charges as the first suspect arrested in the case — one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree attempted robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action — and is being held on bond.
According to a probable cause statement obtained by First Alert 4, Allison initially told investigators he had only entered Bell's residence to buy drugs. Court records instead describe Allison as having gone with four other people to Bell's address with the intent to rob him, after scouting out the scene beforehand. The group entered the home armed with firearms, demanded items from Bell, and ultimately shot and killed him, the statement says. Surveillance footage reportedly captured part of the incident.
The Night Jobori Bell Was Killed
The shooting happened at approximately 10 p.m. on Sunday, July 12, inside a home in the 2000 block of Obear Avenue, according to KSDK. Responding officers found Bell non-responsive with gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Hoodline's initial report on the shooting went out hours later, before any suspects had been identified.
Leon Perry, 26, was the first person arrested in the case, taken into custody on July 15 — three days after the killing — following leads developed by homicide detectives, per Metro East Star. Perry faces the same set of charges now filed against Allison: one count of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree attempted robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on August 14, per First Alert 4.
Two Alleged Roles, Mandatory Sentences Under Missouri Law
Court records reported by KSDK describe Perry's alleged role as distinct from Allison's: Perry allegedly drove two men to Obear Avenue with the intent to rob Bell, and those men then entered the home and fatally shot him. It remains unclear whether the additional people described in court records as part of the group have been identified or will face charges of their own.
Under Missouri Revised Statute § 565.020, first-degree murder is a Class A felony punishable only by the death penalty or life in prison without eligibility for parole or probation, according to Missouri's Revised Statutes. Separately, a conviction for armed criminal action under RSMo § 571.015 carries a mandatory minimum three-year prison term that must run consecutively — not concurrently — with any sentence for the underlying felony, per The Hartley Law Firm. With two armed criminal action counts apiece, both Allison and Perry face additional mandatory prison time stacked on top of whatever sentence results from the murder and robbery charges.
A Violent Corridor in a Shrinking Neighborhood
Bell's death adds to a troubling pattern along the same street. Less than a month earlier, on June 14, a 54-year-old man was killed inside a residence in the 1400 block of East Obear Avenue, KSDK reported at the time. And in April 2025, Anthony Conner was shot and killed in the 1900 block of Obear Avenue, a case that led to a first-degree murder charge filed two months later against a St. Louis County resident, as Hoodline reported at the time. Hoodline also reported in July on renewed efforts to solve the unsolved 2024 killing of Larrion Beckton in College Hill.
College Hill's population fell 34% between 2010 and 2020, dropping from 1,871 residents to 1,243, with more than 90% of residents identifying as Black, according to the City of St. Louis's census data. The 0.39-square-mile North St. Louis neighborhood takes its name from Saint Louis University's former 1836 'College Farm,' which was subdivided into residential lots in the early 1870s, per Wikipedia.
Support Resources for Affected Families
St. Louis crime victim resources, including the Crime Victim Center of St. Louis and the hospital-based intervention partnership Life Outside of Violence, offer crisis counseling, trauma recovery, and relocation support to families affected by gun violence in the city. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they intend to seek the death penalty against Allison and Perry, or whether additional members of the group described in court records will face charges of their own.
