Jury reaches guilty verdict in 2010 killing in Shawnee

A Kansas City man was convicted Friday in the 2010 killing of the longtime owner of a Shawnee liquor store.

A Johnson County jury found Bruce Ashley Jr. guilty of first degree murder and attempted aggravated robbery in the May 2010 shooting death of Gerry Grovenburg.

Grovenburg, 61, owned Mr. G’s Liquor Store at 76th Street and Quivira Road for 35 years.

Ashley’s cousin and co-defendant, Larry Marshall Jr., testified in the weeklong trial that he drove Ashley to the area of the liquor store on the night of the killing. Marshall said he drove around until Ashley called and told him to pick him up at a nearby apartment complex.

Marshall testified that Ashley told him, “I think I shot somebody.”

Authorities later linked a .40-caliber shell casing at the scene to other shell casings tied to a Kansas City shooting in which Ashley was wounded.

His blood and a .40-caliber shell casing fired from the gun used in Grovenburg’s killing were found inside a vehicle recovered after the Kansas City shooting, according to testimony.

Marshall, 34, testified as part of a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and aiding a felon.

Ashley, 31, will be sentenced Oct. 10.

This story was originally published August 15, 2014 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Jury reaches guilty verdict in 2010 killing in Shawnee."