For more than two years, Crystal Umfress has lived a nightmare.
She’s been charged with numerous crimes, her husband died, her business closed, and she was smeared in the press.
Last month, her nightmare ended, and she’s ready to talk, including with me.
The alleged crimes
On February 2, 2026, Crystal was found not guilty of conspiring to burn down a restaurant.
The former owner of Casa Maria’s restaurant in Columbia was found not guilty of arson, according to a statement made by her attorney.
Crystal Umfress was accused of hiring Kerry Raymond in 2023 to burn down Lupita’s Mexican Restaurant, which is located in Dunklin County in the Missouri Bootheel.
The trial for the arson charge started Monday in Butler County and ended Tuesday. The jury deliberated for just over an hour, according to the firm representing Umfress.
Later that same month, she pled guilty to another crime.
Former Columbia restaurant owner Crystal Umfress pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor in a false documents case against her — two weeks after she was found not guilty of arson in a separate case, according to court records that were recently made public.
Umfress was sentenced to 90 days in jail at the Butler County Justice Center with credit for time served, according to court records. She pleaded guilty to making a false affidavit to mislead a public servant, a class A misdemeanor, according to court records. The state dismissed felony forgery charges against Umfress as part of the plea deal.
Crystal told me she pled guilty to end the legal case, which had gone for nearly three years. She said it would have cost her close to $50,000 to defend herself at trial, after already paying for a defense for the other trial.
Her story is even more tragic because her husband died in a mysterious car crash days after she was arrested. She was not allowed to attend his funeral and held a “celebration of life” for him later at the restaurant they co-owned, Casa Maria.
She said she was the victim of a coordinated legal and media attack, and the backdrop is the ring helping illegal immigrants in Dunklin County, Missouri.
Her story is even more curious since her restaurant, Casa Maria, was located hundreds of miles from Dunklin and the restaurant/bars involved in the ring.
Her restaurant has closed due to the legal fight; she told me she lost her liquor license after being accused of not reporting her arrest in time.
In her travels through the criminal justice system, she interacted with many of the players who make up the ring.
Misty Glass
Misty Glass was the subject of a probable cause statement in 2023 written by a special agent, Adam Mathias, with the Missouri Department of Revenue (MDR) in which Agent Mathias presented evidence that Glass, then an employee of the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV), was part of a ring which gave illegal immigrants real identification.
Crystal told me she is aware of Glass’s role in this scheme, but she never met her when Crystal was arrested for the arson.
Misty was asked about this scheme at Crystal’s trial, but that was not the purpose of her testimony.
Misty claimed that she and Crystal were part of a conspiracy to commit the arson.
Crystal told me the testimony fell apart after Misty made claims of CashApp payment, text messages and other electronic connections.
Except, these supposed payments were not introduced; Crystal told me that she never made any payments to Misty.
The MDR did not respond to an email for comment.
Adam Squires, who interviewed with me previously, told me that Misty has since been fired from the DMV.
While Misty was not charged for any role in this scheme,
Juan Toscano
Toscano has been described as a “fixer.”
Hick Christian wrote about how Toscano fixed a case where a drunk driver killed a pedestrian.
The court receipt is clear: Juan R. Toscano paid $500 cash bond to free the man who killed Eric Mayberry. Within 24 hours of his arrest, Gomez walked free—represented by Kennett City Attorney Terry McVey, the same lawyer who serves as municipal prosecutor while simultaneously defending the people he should be prosecuting.
Eric Mayberry was 58 years old. He lived in Paragould, Arkansas. He left behind a daughter, her children, and a girlfriend. And he’s dead because a protection network spanning from Kennett, Missouri to the FBI in Washington, D.C. has spent years ensuring that certain people never face consequences—no matter who they kill.
This is the story of that network. And it starts with understanding who Alan Gomez really was.
Toscano did not respond to an email for comment.
Crystal said he was a fixer in numerous ways, including for identification for illegal immigrants.
She also said that at the time of her arrest she had never met Toscano, only knew him by reputation.
She said despite having no personal connection, Toscano showed up to most of her hearings.
The judge called him a “victim” and arguments were made to revoke her bond because Toscano purportedly feared for his life with her free.
Crystal said that Toscano, an entrepreneur, owns the land where the restaurant which was the subject of the arson.
Ron Huber and Pillar Sanchez
Ron Huber is a Dunklin County Commissioner.
Huber is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and the victim in the other case, where Crystal was alleged to have made a false document.
This story first exploded, conveniently enough, when the Missouri legislature was investigating illegal immigration.
A Columbia woman charged with using multiple aliases to accuse restaurant competitors of criminal activity also used fake names for testimony to a Missouri House committee alleging a conspiracy to obtain liquor licenses for undocumented immigrants
Crystal Umfress of Columbia, owner of Casa Maria’s Mexican Cantina, was already facing trial in a Dunklin County arson-for-hire scheme when she was charged Sept. 18 with five new felonies. The new charges, of forgery and filing a false document, also originate in Dunklin County.
The prosecution alleges she impersonated multiple public officials and others to claim that Mexican-born restaurant owners were bribing local public officials to cover-up their immigration status and obtain liquor licenses.
Crystal told me that she was charged at his insistence, and Huber pressured the prosecutors to increase her bond.
Huber did an interview with me which is below.
He acknowledged asking to have her bond revoked.
“Because she was relentless in continuing to get on the internet to make up lies about me,” he told me.
The lies have to do with liquor licenses, primarily to illegal immigrants.
Huber said illegal immigrants probably do own liquor licenses, “Probably some of them have some illegals people who are part owners of it.”
Huber insisted he has done nothing wrong.
Crystal, to me and online, has accused him of facilitating straw liquor license holders for restaurants whose owners are illegal immigrants.
A private investigator hired by Crystal created a spreadsheet to illustrate the point.
Huber said the spreadsheet proves nothing.
He said in his work as a CPA he created many LLCs for restaurants and bars.
“I’m the registered agent,” he said, but that does not mean he had anything to do with obtaining the liquor license.
The registered agent, he told me, is the person who handles any problems, and he is the registered agent as a service to clients.
In one case, Crystal said he was the liquor license holder, for Puerto Jaivo. That has since been changed to another party.
I didn’t ask Mr. Huber about this, and he did not return a follow up phone call to clarify.
Crystal said he is the registered agent for so many restaurants and bars owned by illegal immigrants; it is well known that he is the one to go to if an illegal immigrant needs to get things done.
Another person with connections is Pillar Sanchez, another CPA. She answered when I called, but she said very little.
Pillar denied known Crystal.
“I’ve been in her office,” Crystal told me.
Pillar hung up on me, so I didn’t get a chance to ask her about her husband, Virgilio Acevedo, who appears on several liquor licenses, according to the spreadsheet.
Crystal told me she does not think it’s a coincidence that so many players involved in this ring appeared in her criminal cases.
Check out previous interviews Crystal did with Hick Christian and Tom Bradley.
Update:
I initially wrote that Crystal took a plea deal, however, she pled guilty to the remaining charge, after several felony charges were dismissed. Also, Misty was asked about the ID’s at Crystal’s trial, but that was not the purpose of her testimony. I initially misstated she wasn’t asked about this.
Crystal hired a private investigator, and it was this PI who created the spreadsheet. I initially said Crystal created the spreadsheet.
Post-Script
Check out the fundraiser for more stories on the Dunklin County illegal immigrant ring, and here are the previous stories in the series: story one, story two, story three, and story four.
