Second man receives life sentence in 2021 Northland double murder
A man convicted of murder in a fatal shooting in Kansas City’s Northland in 2021 has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Earl L. Dunn III, 23, was convicted in January of six felonies — two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful use of a weapon — in the killings of Kristopher Lunsford-Barrett, 23, and Kyle Gerhardt, 21, on March 1, 2021.
The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Monday that Dunn’s prison sentence would consist of two consecutive life sentences without parole for each count of murder, followed by 30 years for the weapons charge and 10 years for each armed criminal action charge.
On the day of the double murder, police responded around 5 p.m. to a crashed car that had caught on fire near Anderson and Norton avenues in northeast Kansas City. Lunsford-Barrett and Gerhardt were found inside with multiple gunshot wounds each and were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Kansas City Police Department previously said that it looked like Dunn and another suspect, then-24-year-old Vontez Howard, had pursued the victims for several blocks until the car was totaled, creating a wide and messy crime scene.
According to court documents, Lunsford-Barrett and Gerhardt had been in a grey Lincoln Town Car during the shooting, which they had crashed into a tree before Dunn and Howard approached them on foot.
Surveillance video captured at homes in the area then shows the Town Car reversing away from the tree and speeding away eastbound, pursued by a maroon SUV with Dunn and Howard inside, according to court documents. Police believe that Dunn and Howard shot at Lunsford-Barrett and Gerhardt while driving through the intersection of Anderson and Mersington avenues — where several shell casings were later found, according to court documents — before the Town Car swerved into another tree.
Investigators recovered a cigar butt matching Dunn’s DNA from the SUV, court documents read, and used cell tower mapping data to place Dunn and the victims in the area of the crime scene at the time of the murder.
A Jackson County jury found Howard guilty of eight felonies, including two counts of second-degree murder, in April 2023, according to court records. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison in June 2023.
Kristopher Allen Sequoia Lunsford-Barrett grew up in San Diego and was interred there after his death, according to an obituary shared online. The aspiring rapper secured a record deal in Kansas City in 2019, around which time he enjoyed some popularity in the Los Angeles music scene, the obituary reads.
“Kristopher was deeply passionate, showing devotion to all that he loved; his music, his friends, and his family,” Lunsford-Barrett’s obituary reads.
Kyle Robert Gerhardt was born in Liberty and grew up in Kansas City before taking a job traveling across the country for a moving company, according to an obituary posted online.
Gerhardt also enjoyed music, as well as fishing, sports cars, video games and spending time in nature, his obituary reads. He is survived by his daughter Nova.
“Kyle especially adored his daughter and being a devoted dad,” Gerhardt’s obituary reads.
