In the early hours of a March morning in 2019, the life of 29-year-old Calvin Allen Jr. was brought to a violent end in Springfield, Missouri. A male and a former high school basketball standout, Allen was discovered deceased outside a room at the Ozark Inn located on North Glenstone Avenue. The Springfield Police Department had been dispatched to the motel for a well-being check shortly after midnight and made the grim discovery.
It was apparent that Allen had sustained a fatal gunshot wound, and investigators immediately began treating the case as a homicide.
The investigation into Allen's death moved swiftly, and by that same evening, a suspect was in custody. Seth Gomez, who was 19 years old at the time, was arrested in connection with the killing. Initially, Gomez was charged with second-degree murder and was held in the Greene County Jail on a $350,000 bond. As the case proceeded through the legal system, a more detailed and brutal account of Allen's final moments emerged.
The case against Seth Gomez culminated in a trial where he was ultimately found guilty of the more severe charge of first-degree murder, as well as armed criminal action, on May 10, 2021. Evidence presented during the trial revealed a chilling sequence of events. It was detailed that Gomez had first stabbed Allen in the head and neck while he was on a bed inside the motel room. As Allen attempted to escape his attacker, Gomez shot him in the back, a wound that proved to be fatal. For his crimes, Gomez faced a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The conviction brought a measure of closure to the family of Calvin Allen, who was remembered as a loving father to his two young sons. His father acknowledged that his son had faced struggles with mental illness and opioid addiction, which he believed played a role in the circumstances that led to his tragic death.
