Keith Carnes freed from prison after prosecutors drop charges in Kansas City murder
A Kansas City man walked out of a south-central Missouri prison on Monday, days after Jackson County prosecutors said they would not retry him in a 2003 murder because of insufficient evidence.
Keith Carnes, 52, spent 18 years in prison after he was convicted in 2006 of armed criminal action and first-degree murder in the killing of 24-year-old Larry White, who was shot to death in Kansas City.
His release comes after a several-day delay as his family waited outside of the prison.
Earlier this month, the Missouri Supreme Court determined an eyewitness’ account was not disclosed to Carnes’ defense team, in what is known as a Brady violation. The court threw out Carnes’ convictions and directed prosecutors to decide whether to retry him.
“Everybody’s not always following the law,” state Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, a Democrat from St. Louis, said of the violation that freed Carnes. “The fact that they caught it ... and he’s out, I think it gives other inmates hope.”
Carnes and his supporters have maintained he is innocent in the Oct. 6, 2003 killing, which unfolded in a parking lot at 29th Street and Prospect Avenue.
After the supreme court ruling, prosecutors said they would not retry Carnes. The office said its review did not establish that Carnes is actually innocent, but that there was insufficient evidence to prove guilt in a courtroom.
Delayed release
On Friday evening, Carnes’ family drove more than four hours to the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, expecting him to be released following the prosecutor’s announcement.
Carnes was not released that day.
His mother, Eve Moffatt, and brother, Kevin Carnes, along with a private investigator who worked on his case spent the night there. Moffatt and Kevin Carnes then visited with Carnes for about two hours inside the prison Saturday.
Prison officials informed them that they had not received an order from the Missouri Department of Corrections to release Carnes, said Stephanie Burton, an attorney who was retained to address the delay in Carnes’ release.
“It’s infuriating,” Burton told The Star on Saturday. “He should be a free man. They are violating his rights at this point.”
Relatives learned Monday morning that the prison said it had received the necessary paperwork and was processing Carnes’ release.
Prosecutors criticize investigator
In its statement Friday, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said it accepted the high court’s findings that Carnes’ rights were violated.
“Jackson County takes this finding with the utmost seriousness,” the statement said. “Discovery practices have changed substantially since 2003. Though the process has greatly improved, we are also building a new electronic system or bridge between our office and (the Kansas City Police Department) to ensure that all reports are transferred.”
The office noted that a special master’s investigation found no prosecutorial misconduct in Carnes’ case.
Prosecutors also blasted a private investigator who investigated Carnes’ case, saying she was romantically involved with Carnes and pressured witnesses to recant their testimony.
“If police investigators engaged in such improper conduct, it would require immediate disclosure and conflict procedures to protect the integrity of the investigation,” the prosecutor’s office said. “This rule does not apply just to police and credible organizations, like the Midwest Innocence Project, which would not allow such bias as part of an investigation.”
Prosecutors said the evidence in the case is now “tainted from all directions.”
Christopher Iliff, legal director of Miracle of Innocence, an Overland Park-based nonprofit that pushed for Carnes’ release, told KCUR the prosecutor’s statement was “mean-spirited.”
Members of the prosecutor’s office met Friday with White’s relatives, who are planning a celebration of his birthday this week.
“His sister, Juanita White, thanked Jackson County for seeking justice on her family’s behalf,” prosecutors said. “For her health, she said she will leave anything further to God, although her family believes that Carnes was one of the men who killed her brother.”
White’s killing remains under investigation.
Prosecutors noted the charges were dismissed without prejudice and that murder has no statute of limitations. They urged Carnes, who they say was present on the night of the homicide, to speak with law enforcement about what he knows.
“Witnesses stated that a second culprit was present at Mr. White’s murder,” the office said. “We’d like to know that person’s identity.”
Witness statements
Two witnesses in the case, Wendy Lockett and Lorraine Morrow, maintained for nearly a decade that Carnes chased White into the parking lot and shot him multiple times.
Lockett said she recognized Carnes because of his eye patch, which no other drug dealer she knew at the time had.
But in 2014, Lockett recanted her testimony, alleging that she had been coerced into identifying Carnes. Morrow also recanted her testimony and recalled being pressured by then-Assistant Prosecutor Amy McGowan into picking Carnes.
McGowan also prosecuted the case of Ricky Kidd, a Kansas City man who spent 23 years behind bars for a double murder he did not commit. Kidd was exonerated and freed in 2019.
Further complicating Carnes’ case, Lockett testified in a 2021 court hearing that her original testimony actually was accurate and she was harassed into recanting by Carnes’ supporters.
At the same hearing, Morrow said she was suffering from too many medical conditions to remember the night of the murder clearly.
Another witness, Kermit O’Neal, said he was a friend of Carnes’ in 2003. He alleged that police intimidated him and attempted to “put words in his mouth” when recounting the night of the murder.
O’Neal said White had a heated exchange with another drug dealer about selling drugs on his property and warned him not to come back prior to the shooting. The other dealer was not Carnes, according to O’Neal.
The Star’s Anna Spoerre and Luke Nozicka contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 11:41 AM.
