Cocaine dealer with ties to notorious KC crime organization sent to prison

A member of a notorious Kansas City criminal organizations was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in federal prison.

Demond Robins pleaded guilty earlier this year in federal court in Kansas City to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Robins, 36, is the cousin of two brothers convicted in the murder of a man outside an Overland Park bar in 2016.

Robins and his cousins, James Willis and Dale Willis, along with their associates, were the focus of a joint investigation by Kansas City police and federal agents, that led to the charges against Robins.

That investigation included the placement of a hidden camera outside of a house where another alleged drug dealer met with Robins before and after transactions with an undercover officer.

The camera was put in place in 2015 after the murders of two brothers who were rap artists for a Kansas City record company operated by Dale Willis, according to court records and testimony.

While that investigation was ongoing, an aspiring rapper from Olathe named Jurl Carter, was killed in September 2015 outside Jim Kilroy’s Roxy Bar at 75th Street and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park.

The Willis brothers are now serving life prison sentences after Johnson County juries found them guilty of murder in Carter’s death.

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Cocaine dealer with ties to notorious KC crime organization sent to prison."