Kansas City 18-year-old charged with manslaughter in 2023 multi-vehicle crash
A Kansas City man who was driving an injured friend to the hospital has been charged with manslaughter in a multi-vehicle crash that left a 67-year-old man dead, court records show.
Te’Ron Darnell Chappell, 18, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson County court Monday. Court documents allege that he was speeding when his Dodge Avenger collided with several vehicles on April 15, 2023, killing another driver.
The crash occurred around 12:15 a.m while Chappell and four passengers were speeding westbound on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, according to court documents. Around Eastwood Trafficway, Chappell hit a tow truck that was making a U-turn with its emergency lights on, court documents state.
The tow truck driver had been attempting to load a maroon Kia SUV driven by her brother, whose car had broken down in the turn lane onto MLK Boulevard, according to Kansas City, Kansas police.
After the collision, Chappell continued driving west and crashed head-on into a white Cadillac Seville waiting to turn left from the eastbound lanes of MLK Boulevard. The crash sent the Dodge sliding into other vehicles, hitting the Kia and a gold Pontiac minivan, before skidding to a stop, according to court documents.
The driver of the Cadillac, 67-year-old Larry McDonald, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Chappell and his four passengers were all hospitalized with serious injuries after the crash, according to court records. The other drivers and passengers involved in the crash declined medical treatment.
McDonald, a father of four as well as a grandfather, was heavily involved in the congregation at Greater Pentecostal Temple in Kansas City, Kansas, according to memorial posts shared online.
“I love you, Daddy,” McDonald’s son, Anthony McDonald, wrote online after his death. “We will see each other again.”
In memorial posts, Anthony Clark Jr., a friend and fellow congregation member, described McDonald as a “positive male role model” to multiple younger community members.
“He would always speaks a words of encouragement, and [was] one of the greatest motivators,” Clark wrote.
Chappell graduated from North Kansas City High School earlier this year. After the crash, he told police detectives that one of the passengers had been shot earlier that night, according to court records, and that Chappell and his friends were rushing their wounded friend to a nearby hospital.
The wounded passenger, a juvenile, later told police that he had been driving a Nissan Altima earlier that night when he was shot by a man on a motorcycle. The juvenile said he was dropped off at an apartment complex in Raytown after the shooting before Chappell came to pick him up, according to court documents, but that he passed out shortly after getting into the Dodge.
At the time that he was involved in the crash, Chappell had an intermediate drivers’ license, according to court documents. This meant that he was over 16 and had passed his road test, but had not been authorized to carry more than three passengers, as he was doing during the crash.
Chappell could face up to four years of jail time, according to court documents.
Reporting by The Star’s Matti Gellman was used in this article.
This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 5:38 PM.
