Calvin Allen Jr., 29, was found dead outside a room at the Ozark Inn on North Glenstone Avenue in Springfield in the early hours of a March morning in 2019 after police responded to a well-being check shortly after midnight. He had sustained a fatal gunshot wound and the case was treated as a homicide.

A suspect, 19-year-old Seth Gomez, was arrested that same day and initially charged with second-degree murder. At trial, jurors convicted Gomez of first-degree murder and armed criminal action on May 10, 2021. Prosecutors presented evidence that Gomez stabbed Allen in the head and neck while Allen was on a bed in the motel room; Allen attempted to flee and was then shot in the back, the wound that proved fatal. Gomez was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Allen was remembered as a loving father to two young sons; his father said Allen had struggled with mental illness and opioid addiction, which his father believed were factors in the events leading to his death.