Olathe teenager is sentenced for 2022 murder that happened in Black Bob Park
An Olathe teen has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for killing a 19-year-old man during a botched robbery at Black Bob Park in 2022.
Jacobi Deonte Epting, 16, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to second-degree murder for his role in the death of 19-year-old Marco Cardino, of Smithville.
Epting also pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. The four charges carried a total sentence of 241 months.
Olathe police responded to Black Bob Park in Olathe around 4 a.m. on May 14, 2022, where they discovered Cardino suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities believe that the shooting took place while Epting and his co-defendants tried to rob Cardino during a drug deal involving marijuana. A total of seven people, then juveniles, were charged in relation to the murder, according to court records. Four of them, including Epting, were initially charged with first-degree murder.
However, investigators believe that Epting, who was tried as an adult, fired the shot that killed Cardino, according to the office of Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe. Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Epting , then 14, instructed the other teens involved to take Cardino’s money during the drug deal.
Prosecutors also wrote that Epting wore a mask to conceal his face during the murder, showed Cardino his gun before shooting him and fired a shot at another person in the process.
“This is the final defendant to be sentenced who was involved in the homicide,” Howe wrote in a Tuesday news release. “Mr. Epting is the one who orchestrated this crime and pulled the trigger.”
Epting has been held in detention in Johnson County on a $1 million bond since May 2022.
Previous reporting by The Star’s Nathan Pilling contributed to this coverage.
