Judge Stephanie Morrell was elected to the bench in 2018 and has over 20 years of Mid-Missouri trial experience.  Prior to taking the bench, she worked 3 jobs to support her two fantastic boys. She was a Boone County Prosecutor for 12 years, Sturgeon City Prosecutor, and an adjunct professor at Columbia College teaching night classes.  Judge Morrell is a single mom who has the real world experience to know that life throws curveballs at everyone.  She carries her personal and courtroom experiences to the bench everyday.

Judge Morrell and her boys love this community and they inspire her to work hard to make our communities better.  To Judge Morrell, that begins with treating everyone with dignity and respect, and ensuring we all receive fair and equitable justice under the law. 

She is a judge with the life experience to know what impact her decisions have.

Lifelong public servant who knows firsthand the importance of fair justice.

Since taking the bench, Judge Morrell has handled thousands of criminal, civil, and traffic matters for Boone County. She has also overseen probate matters for Boone and Callaway Counties. In the probate docket, she decides who cares for the most vulnerable among us: people suffering from mental illness, those who’ve become incapacitated, and minor children.  She takes that privilege and responsibility seriously and is proud of the solutions she has reached through strong relationships with the Public Administrator and other community partners.

Judge Morrell also facilitates the Boone County Jail Mental Health Staffing Committee, which won the 2023 Missouri Association of Counties Achievement Award. She brings together a diverse team of local defense attorneys, prosecutors, mental health professionals, Treatment Court, and Sheriff’s Department, to monitor and ensure that individuals currently in jail custody get the mental health attention they need and are not lost in the system.

As a prosecutor in Boone County, Judge Morrell established herself as a respected, trusted attorney for serious, complicated cases. She prosecuted 20 murder or manslaughter cases, many of which went to jury trial in Boone or Callaway Counties. Each of those jury trials resulted in a conviction and justice for victims’ families. She has tried over 120 cases.

Judge Morrell started her legal career as an Assistant Attorney General where she argued before the Missouri Supreme Court more than a dozen times and represented the State of Missouri in the United States Supreme Court. She has also successfully argued before each of Missouri’s three appellate courts and has over 300 appeals under her belt.

Judge Morrell has been recognized for her dedication to Public Service and the Mid-Missouri Community. She received the Missouri Prosecutors President’s Award in 2015 and received the Woman of the Year Award for Public Service in 2019.

Dedicated to Mid-Missouri because it is her home.

Judge Morrell grew up in the rural town of Beloit, Kansas.  Population approx. 3500.  She was one of seven children who learned the value of hard work at an early age.  Throughout the summers, she helped (and played) on her grandparents’ farms by cutting wheat on the combine with her dad and picking corn and digging up potatoes with her mom.

Judge Morrell came to Boone County straight out of law school and has called Mid-Missouri her home for over two decades.  She raised her two really cool and active sons, Kain and Camden, here and has spent countless nights working concession stands at their basketball and football games and volunteering at their debate tournaments.