KC teenager faces murder charge

Prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man with murder for a shooting death last month near 26th Street and Agnes Avenue.

Desmon L. Buckner of Kansas City was charged with second-degree murder, robbery and armed criminal action in the Aug. 17 shooting death of Benjamin Harper. Harper was shot several times and died at a hospital.

According to court records, two witnesses observed Buckner attempting to rob Harper. Buckner told police he was trying to steal marijuana and other items and shot Harper in the leg with a rifle before fleeing, the records said.
—Kevin Hoffmann

New Orleans police stunned by suicides

CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Life wasn't supposed to end this way for Sgt. Paul Accardo: alone in chaos. He wrote a note telling anyone who found him to contact a fellow officer. He was precise, and thoughtful, to the end. Then he stuck a gun into his mouth and killed himself.

Accardo, 36, was one of two city cops who committed suicide last week as New Orleans descended into an abyss of death and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. He was found in an unmarked patrol car Saturday in a downtown parking lot.

His funeral was planned for Wednesday.

Back when life was normal and structured, Accardo served as one of the police department's chief spokesmen. He reported murders, hostage situations and rapes in measured words, his bespectacled face benign and familiar on the nightly news.

"Paul was a stellar guy. A perfectionist. Everything had to be just right," recalled Sgt. Joe Narcisse, who went to police academy with Accardo and worked with him in the public affairs office.

Uniform crisply pressed, office in order, everything just right on his desk. That was Accardo.

"I'm the jokester in the office. I'd move stuff on his desk and he didn't like that," said Capt. Marlon Defillo, Accardo's boss. "He was ready to call the crime lab to find out who messed with his desk."

Maybe, Defillo reckoned, he killed himself because he lost hope that order would ever be restored in the city.

A public information officer, the captain said, turns the senseless - murder, rape, mayhem - into something orderly for the public. "It's like dominoes scattered across a table and putting them in order."

But in New Orleans for the past week, the chaos seemed endless.

Like the rest of the department, Accardo worked long, difficult days - sometimes 20 hours. He waded through the mass of flesh and stench in the Louisiana Superdome. He saw the dead in the streets.

Defillo remembered how bad Accardo felt when he was unable to help women stranded on the interstate and pleading for water and food. One woman said her baby had not had water in three days.

He even wanted to stop and help the animals lost amid the ruin of New Orleans, Defillo said.

Unable to stop the madness and hurt, Accardo sank into depression.

Narcisse remembered being on the telephone with him, complaining about the flooding when his old academy buddy cut him off midsentence: "Joe. Joe. I can't talk to you right now." He couldn't handle it anymore, Narcisse said.

"It was like you were having an awful conversation with someone who died in your family," he said.

Accardo - who also lost his home in the flood waters - looked like a zombie, like someone who hadn't slept in year, Defillo said. But so did so many on the 1,600-member force.

Officials said Monday that between 400 to 500 officers were unaccounted for, many tending to their homes or looking for their families, and some dropping out. To lessen the stress, officers were being cycled off duty and given five-day vacations in Las Vegas and Atlanta, where they also would receive counseling.

Said Mayor Ray Nagin: "I've got some firefighters and police officers that have been pretty much traumatized."

Police Superintendent Eddie Compass didn't know how many had abandoned their jobs outright, but denied that it was a large number.

"No police department in the history of the world was asked to do what we (were) asked," he said.

But Defillo said he never thought Accardo would kill himself.

"We kept telling him, 'There's going to be a brighter day; suck it up,'" Defillo said. "He couldn't shake it."

According to the obituary in the Advocate of Baton Rouge, Accardo left a wife, Anne; his mother, Catherine; a brother; a sister; and eight nieces and nephews.

18-hour standoff ends with gunfire, death

By LINDA MAN

A 29-year-old man died today amid a burst of gunfire after holding off police for roughly 18 hours in Independence.

Police did not release the name of the victim who had barricaded himself in the 16400 block of Gudgell Road.

According to police:

The fracas started at 9:27 a.m. Monday, when officers attempted to check on the welfare of some children who had not been registered for school. Officers were greeted by three adults, who talked to them through the door. The children were not inside.

By 11:20 a.m., a man and a woman agreed to leave. One man stayed inside.

Police attempted to communicate with the man, but he did not respond. The man had a parole violation and some city warrants, police said.

Some time later, officers kicked down the door and entered the home, but the man fired two shots at them from the basement.

The Police Department’s special-response team was activated at 11:43 p.m. The man told police that he wasn’t coming out, and he threatened to blow up the home.

Police then shot tear gas into the home.

Police said the man fired at officers about 3:30 a.m., and the officers returned fire. The man was found dead at 3:34 a.m. It had not been determined if he had shot himself or had been hit by police fire.

Police are continuing to investigate.

Arrests in rest stop assault

Lawrence County (Mo.) authorities have arrested two Ohio men in connection with an assault and robbery at the eastbound rest area on Interstate 44 near Mount Vernon.

The victim, an elderly man, was traveling with his wife to their home in Davenport, Iowa. While in the rest area’s bathroom, the man was grabbed and his wallet was taken. The man was then thrown to the floor, injuring his hand and back. Daniel L. Woods, 20, and David Caplinger, 22, both of Bainbridge, Ohio, were arrested.
- Monett Times

Mistrial in wife's death

In Joplin, Mo., a deadlocked jury has forced Circuit Judge Jon Dermott to declare a mistrial in the second-degree murder case of David A. Garner of Carthage.

Garner is charged with fatally shooting his wife, Barbara Garner, 46, in the head during an argument Feb. 6, 2004, in their home.
- Joplin Globe

Boone County gun permits

The Boone County Sheriff’s Department has joined the Hallsville and Ashland police departments as a location in the county where residents can apply for permits to carry concealed weapons.

About 700 permits have been issued in Boone County since fall 2003, when the Hallsville police began accepting applications. Ashland police joined the effort in spring 2004.
- Columbia Daily Tribune

Drunken schoolbus driver

Aurora, Mo  — A 17-year-old girl ushered a group of schoolchildren off a bus that had been driven erratically.
The bus driver, Daniel Adams, 55, of Wheaton, was charged with 10 counts of child endangerment after he failed a field sobriety test at the Aurora School District’s bus barn. The Lawrence County prosecutor’s office said additional charges could be filed.
- Associated Press

Guilty plea in sheriff's death

Wichita - One of five people charged along with Scott Cheever in the Jan. 19 shooting death of Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels last week pleaded guilty to drug charges. Billy G. Nowell also agreed to testify at Cheever’s trial. Investigators said Samuels was killed while trying to serve a warrant.

Woman's remains to be buried

The remains of a woman who disappeared 32 years ago were expected to be buried today in the Dance Ground Cemetery west of Mayetta, Kansas. Louella J. “Ludy” Monroe was 30 when last seen in 1973. Skeletal remains discovered by a construction crew about five years ago were identified recently through DNA analysis.

Tire injures girl leaving Irish festival

Child was walking along Grand Blvd. when she was hit
By JAMES HART
A girl was seriously hurt in a freak accident Saturday as a tire came off a car and hit her as she walked along a Kansas City sidewalk.

The girl — whose name wasn’t immediately available — and her family were leaving the Kansas City Irish Fest at Crown Center when the accident happened about 6 p.m., festival organizers said.

They were walking on a sidewalk along Grand Boulevard just north of 26th Street when the accident happened.

The car is an older vehicle and was headed north toward Crown Center, said Pat O’Neill, an Irish Fest spokesman.

It didn’t appear the car had hit any obstructions in the road. O’Neill described it as a “fluke tragedy.”

“She was not in harm’s way,” O’Neill said of the girl. “Harm found her.”

The girl is about 9 years old, a police officer on the scene said.

Her medical condition was not available Saturday evening, but her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

O’Neill said she was taken to Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Police were talking with the driver of the vehicle on Saturday evening.

Irish Fest organizers plan to dedicate a Catholic Mass to the girl at 9:30 a.m. today at Crown Center.

Second-degree charge disputed in boy’s death

Case rivals that of Erica Green, activist says

By MARK MORRIS

The Kansas City Star

Community activist Alonzo Washington on Friday challenged Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders to upgrade murder charges against a man accused of killing his fiancee’s 23-month-old son.

Washington said the murder of Zayquon Hammond was as outrageous as that of Erica Green, who for years was known only as Precious Doe. Although the defendant in Erica’s death is facing a first-degree murder charge, Ryan T. Wiss is charged with second-degree murder in Zayquon’s death.

“I don’t appreciate how he (Sanders) can do one thing on one case and one thing on another,” Washington said at an afternoon news conference. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

First-degree murder requires a killing with deliberation and cool reflection, no matter how brief.

Washington suggested that one reason that Wiss was charged with a lesser crime, which can draw a life sentence, is that he is white and that his family has connections within the legal community.

Dawn Parsons, Sanders’ chief trial assistant, defended the counts against Wiss and said the charge was appropriate to the facts of the case.

“You’d have to prove deliberation in a ‘murder one’ case, which usually isn’t there in these child homicide cases,” Parsons said. “Most people don’t deliberate on how to kill a child. I know he (Washington) wants to draw parallels to Precious Doe, but our facts are different, and we have to make decisions on each individual case.”

According to court records, Wiss became angry that Zayquon could not walk up the steps to his mother’s apartment fast enough.

Second-degree murder is a regular charge in such cases. A 2003 survey of Missouri and Kansas child-abuse deaths by The Kansas City Star found more than a dozen instances in which defendants in child homicide cases were charged with second-degree murder.

In 2000, Mary Bass was convicted in one of the worst child-abuse cases in Kansas City history. Bass starved her 8-year-old sons Larry and Gary for weeks before she put their legs and feet in scalding bath water on Oct. 15, 1999. She did not take the severely burned boys to a hospital. Both died within a week.

For her conviction on two counts of second-degree murder and other charges, she received eight life sentences.

Asked if he believed that all defendants in child homicide cases should be charged with first-degree murder, Washington replied, “100 percent.”

Bicycle accident in Lenexa

A 14-year-old boy on a bicycle was a struck by a vehicle about 6:55 p.m. Friday near College Boulevard and Pflumm Road, police said.

The boy, who was not identified, was flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital. His injuries were considered serious but not life-threatening. Police continued to investigate.

12 years-plus in shooting death

An 18-year-old man was sentenced Friday to nearly 13 years in prison for the shooting death of Carroll Joseph Thompson, 26, of Overland Park.

Wyandotte County District Judge J. Dexter Burdette sentenced Larry D. Johnson to 12 years and 10 months in prison.

Johnson had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 20 shooting death of Thompson in the area of 31st Street and Haskell Avenue in Kansas City, Kan. Prosecutors said the shooting was drug-related.

Man, 65, charged with molesting girl, 16

Jackson County prosecutors on Friday filed six felony counts against a 65-year-old man for allegedly molesting and sodomizing a 16-year-old girl.

Raymond D. Dority of Kansas City faces charges including two counts of statutory sodomy. He was in jail Friday night.

Court records said the sexual assaults occurred between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16 at Dority’s house in the 3200 block of E. 78th Street. Dority allegedly told the girl “not to tell anyone about what was going on,” according to court records. The abuse came to police attention after the girl told a friend, who told others, the court records said.

Man accused of raping 11-year-old

Jackson County prosecutors on Friday accused a 29-year-old man of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old friend of a relative.

Prosecutors charged Gary G. Nolan of Kansas City with forcible rape, statutory rape, statutory sodomy and attempted statutory sodomy for attacks that allegedly occurred between June 1 and Aug. 11. He was in jail Friday night.

Court records said the girl showed physical signs of rape and contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

The attacks occurred at Nolan’s home in the 1900 block of Park Tower Drive until the girl told her mother in August, according to court records.

Guilty plea in $400K credit card scam

A Detroit man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to his role in a fraud scheme that bilked more than $400,000 from more than 50 victims.

Douglass Patterson, 53, admitted that he and co-conspirator Bryan C. Barnett, 28, of Chicago, had defrauded Citibank credit cardholders and Western Union agents. Barnett earlier had pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Authorities said that Patterson would call Western Union, posing as a credit card holder, and request a money transfer. Before making this call, the conspirators had called the phone company, posing as a technician, and arranged to forward the victim’s home telephone line to their location. When Western Union called back to verify the wire transfer, one of the conspirators then could answer the call, posing as the victim.

The conspirators also sometimes posed as Citibank anti-fraud employees and called cardholders to obtain personal information.

On April 4, 2003, prosecutors said one of the conspirators called Western Union saying he was a Pleasant Hill man and requesting a $3,600 wire transfer with Patterson as the payee. Patterson later picked up the money orders in Chicago, and the victim’s credit card was charged.

“This case highlights how vulnerable we all are to identity theft and how we should take measures to protect our identities,” said FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza. “The most important measure is to check your credit report regularly.”

Body identified in Kansas City

Police have identified a body found in tall weeds Wednesday in the 5700 block of East 35th Terrace.

The corpse was that of Robert Kisner, 52, of Independence.

Parks and Recreation Department workers found the body while they were mowing. The body had no apparent signs of trauma. The cause of death will not be determined until toxicology tests are completed.

Judge OKs use of confession

Greenwood man accused in ’68 case

By MARK MORRIS

The Kansas City Star

The videotaped confession of a Greenwood man accused of killing a Navy shipmate in 1968 can be presented to jurors later this month, a federal judge ruled Friday.

In a written order, Chief U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple said he was satisfied that prosecutors had enough evidence to corroborate the confession independently.

“The evidence in this case is hardly overwhelming, yet there is sufficient independent evidence establishing the truthfulness of the defendant’s confession,” Whipple wrote.

Michael Edward LeBrun, 60, is accused of strangling Ensign Andrew Lee Muns on Jan. 17, 1968. The men were assigned to a refueling vessel anchored in the Philippines. Muns, 24, was the ship’s payroll officer, while LeBrun, a petty officer second class, worked as a supply clerk.

Muns’ body never was found and, until 2001, the Navy had listed him as a deserter.

In the late 1990s, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service reopened the case. LeBrun confessed that he had stolen $8,600 from the ship’s safe and then strangled Muns.

He said he dumped the body and the money into a tank of fuel oil to dispose of the evidence.

Prosecutors have said that without the confession they have no case. Its use in the trial has been the subject of years of litigation and appeals.

After two federal judges in Kansas City ruled that investigators had coerced LeBrun’s confession and violated his Miranda rights, a three-judge appeals panel agreed that the confession should not be used.

However, in a rare rehearing, the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2003 that the confession could be admitted.

Defense attorney Glenn E. Bradford then launched a second assault on the confession based on the rule that a person cannot be convicted on the sole basis of his own uncorroborated confession.

Prosecutors, he argued, had to prove that Muns died from a criminal act independently of LeBrun’s confession.

In a hearing Thursday, Deputy U.S. Attorney Matt Whitworth argued that Muns’ disappearance since 1968 is consistent with LeBrun’s confession, as was the missing $8,600 from the ship’s safe. Other details about Muns’ movements on the ship that night also support the confession, Whitworth said.

Bradford said that the strongest bit of corroboration, the presence of Muns’ body in a shipboard fuel tank, was contradicted by a search of the tank a week after the disappearance.

No body was found.

That fact appeared to trouble Whipple. Whitworth tried to reassure him, noting that witnesses likely would testify that the oil tank wasn’t searched as thoroughly as it should have been.

“That’s pretty self-serving,” Whipple responded. “Did they recall that on their own, or was that idea planted (by the investigators)?”

“They recalled it on their own,” Whitworth replied.

“That’s suspect,” Whipple concluded.

Jury selection for the trial is scheduled to open on Sept. 12.

Man shot by store clerk to get $2 million

An insurance company has agreed to pay $2 million to a man shot by a liquor store clerk after stealing a quart of motor oil.

Heriberto Liera was shot in the back July 20, 2003, as he ran from Royal Liquors, 801 Southwest Blvd. Liera, who was 19 at the time, was paralyzed by the shooting.

Liera filed a personal injury claim against Royal Liquors in December 2004. Both parties agreed to dismiss the suit after the store’s insurance company decided to pay the maximum amount under the policy.

The clerk who fired the gun, Edwin Belgrave, was sentenced to four years in prison for the shooting, but he may be released after about 90 days.

Belgrave told police he did not intend to shoot Liera.
— Kevin Hoffmann/The Star

Police patrol cars carry life-saving devices

Police are supposed to protect and serve, but officers in two Kansas communities also hope to save lives with new defibrillators being placed in their patrol cars.

The Olathe Medical Center presented 39 defibrillators Friday to the Olathe and Spring Hill police. Frank H. Devocelle , hospital president and CEO, said the devices were important for police to carry because patrol officers often were the first to arrive at the scene of an emergency.

Olathe Sgt. Mike Butaud said that without defibrillators, police relied solely on CPR to try to revive someone having a heart attack.

“This gives us the equipment we need,” Butaud said.

The defibrillators presented Friday were the result of the hospital’s $72,000 Hearts on Patrol fund-raiser.
— Benita Y. Williams/The Star

Shots fired in Independence standoff

Independence police surrounded a duplex Monday after a 29-year-old man fired two shots from the basement.

The man, who was not identified, had a warrant for a probation violation and another on a municipal charge, said Independence Police Sgt. Dennis Green.

Burglars favoring apartments

By GLENN E. RICE

Police and apartment dwellers in the Northland have noticed a disturbing trend: Apartment and vehicle break-ins are on the rise.

From Aug. 1 to 19, 52 burglaries were reported in Kansas City, North, a 21 percent increase from the same period in July, when 43 burglaries were reported. According to Kansas City police, 22 of the August break-ins occurred at apartments, while 13 of the July break-ins were at apartments.

The increase has caused the managers of several apartment complexes in Kansas City, North, to send written notices to tenants alerting them of the break-ins and urging them to be on the lookout.

Police think possibly one person or a small group of individuals might be responsible for the burglaries, which have occurred between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., said Officer Chris Sicoli with the North Patrol Division.

In those crimes, perpetrators pried open front doors, climbed through windows and stole jewelry, electronics and cash.

Most items were small and could be easily sold on the street or at pawnshops, Sicoli said.

“The old story of burglars striking in the middle of the night isn’t applicable here,” he said. “We are not sure if it’s one group or separate groups. We don’t have enough to go on right now.”

Burglars have singled out apartment complexes near or along major highways or interstates in the Northland.

Police also have noticed an increase in the number of thefts from vehicles. Sicoli advised residents to remove valuables that are in plain view.

Sicoli said the recent increase in burglaries follows a pattern reported last year, when overall property crimes increased 11 percent from 2003.

The number of burglaries throughout the metropolitan area has varied. Several police departments did not have information readily available to show how many burglaries occurred at apartment complexes.

Of the four Kansas City patrol divisions that did have that information, only the East Patrol recorded a slight decrease in residential burglaries. There were 146 burglaries reported in August, compared with 168 during the same period in July.

Metro Patrol had 132 residential burglaries in August. During the same period in July, there were 116 reported burglaries. The division’s territory stretches from 47th Street to Bannister Road and State Line Road to the Raytown city limits.

Central Patrol reported 75 burglaries in August, compared with 64 residential burglaries reported in July. Central Patrol encompasses the area along the Missouri River to 47th Street and State Line Road to Wabash Avenue.

In South Patrol, there were 43 burglaries in August, compared with 41 burglaries reported in July. Its area roughly is bordered by 87th Street on the north, the Cass County line on the south, State Line Road to the west and Lee’s Summit on the east.

In some parts of Johnson County, apartment burglaries are down.

Overland Park police reported 75 apartment break-ins from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31, compared with 80 during the same period last year.

Likewise, in Shawnee, police said that from the first of the year through the end of August, 29 apartment burglaries were reported, as opposed to 33 last year.

However, apartment burglaries doubled in Lenexa. Ten apartment burglaries were reported through Aug. 20, 2004, compared with 20 this year.

Specific numbers were not available in Kansas City, Kan., but officials said the city is not seeing a dramatic increase. The last two weeks, however, there were at least nine reported burglaries at the Madison at Woodview apartments near 18th Street Expressway and Interstate 35.

“We did have an isolated incident in one area, but it doesn’t seem to be sustaining itself,” said Officer Todd Schumaker, a spokesman for the department. “We are gathering information and working with various agencies in Johnson County and elsewhere to develop possible leads in this case.”

Surge in KC murders mystifies police

Fewer killings being solved

By CHRISTINE VENDEL

They argued over radio stations, basketball, dice and “household issues.”

Their clashes ended with five homicides in August — part of 13 homicides overall for the month, one of the bloodiest of what has been a bloody year in Kansas City.

The cause of the murderous surge continues to puzzle police, but this much is clear: Overworked detectives are solving fewer homicides. More young Kansas Citians are dying. And Kansas City is not alone — other cities are battling similar increases.

Here, the homicide toll through August was 79, a 41 percent increase over the same period of 2004 and a tally not reached last year until early November. Fewer than half of those homicides have been solved.

The inability to solve a large number of the killings makes it difficult for police to uncover trends or learn which homicides share motives, said Deputy Chief Rachel Whipple.

“When we have no information, there is a chance some of these could be connected,” she said, adding that witnesses and relatives often refuse to share what they know. “When no one will talk to us, it does keep us from linking them.”

If investigators could determine a pattern, police could do something to try to stop it, Whipple said.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” she said.

At least some blame falls on people’s inability to walk away from arguments, statistics show.

Nineteen victims died after arguments, the leading cause in 2005 of homicides for which a motive is known. That’s nearly one in four of all the year’s homicides, compared with one in 10 tied to arguments last year.

Yet in 31 cases this year, or roughly 40 percent of the homicides, police don’t know a motive.

A study of homicide statistics points out something else: More young people, especially those aged 10 to 19, are dying than in recent years. Twenty of this year’s victims came from that age group. That’s one in four homicides this year.

A year ago, their age group accounted for only 10 percent of homicides. In 2003 it was 16 percent.

Whipple said the department needs the community’s help to solve more homicides. At the end of August, detectives had cleared 44 percent, below the national average.

Other cities have their own homicide headaches.

Memphis, Tenn., had recorded 100 killings by the end of August, a 32 percent increase from last year.

Police said their rate was relatively steady until a bloody July, when 23 persons were killed. Sgt. Vince Higgins, a police spokesman, said many of the homicides were related to “drug deals gone bad, robbery or self-defense.”

Yet Memphis has one advantage over Kansas City. Detectives there have solved 84 percent of this year’s homicides, which helped police determine patterns. A study of violent-crime suspects showed many came from four neighborhoods. Police plan to rigidly enforce all laws in those neighborhoods as part of a “Blue Crush” program, Higgins said.

Charlotte, N.C., tallied 60 homicides through August, matching its total for all of 2004.

Spokesman Keith Bridges partly blamed an increase in domestic violence. Homicides related to drugs also seemed to be rising, he said.

“In the vast majority of our homicides, there is a known victim-offender relationship,” he said. Though unknowns bedevil Kansas City, investigators have determined motives in 11 of the 13 August homicides.

What will September bring?

A year ago, it brought Kansas City eight bodies in the first four days, most of them eventually tied by police to a serial killer.

Shawnee men die in Missouri wreck

Two Shawnee men died Sunday after their car ran off the roadway and hit a tree in Camden County, Mo.

Authorities identified Matthew Beseau, 21, and Trent Hearn, 21, were killed in the wreck, which was reported at 2:15 p.m. at Shawnee Bend #3, north of Missouri M.

According to a preliminary report by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, the northbound Honda Civic ran off the curve in the roadway. Neither men wore seatbelts. Beseau was partially ejected.

KC man dies in I-435 crash

A Kansas City man died Saturday after his Isuzu ran off the roadway and hit an embankment on Interstate 435, north of Parvin Road.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol identified Jesus Martinez, 23, as the victim.

The wreck was reported at 5:46 p.m. After the southbound Isuzu hit the embankment, it became airborne and landed on some rocks. Martinez was thrown out, and his vehicle landed on top of him.

Martinez was pronounced dead at the scene.