He killed a man and got probation. Now bad driving could get him 10 years in prison

A Buick LeSabre speeding down Linwood Boulevard caught the attention of a Kansas City police officer on patrol.

When the officer tried to pull the car over, the Buick took off. But in his high-speed attempt to flee, the driver hit one too many curbs, disabled his own car, and took off running.

After police chased down and arrested the driver, they found a loaded .40-caliber handgun in the car.

And they learned the driver, 39-year-old Reginald L. Abbott, was walking free on a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of killing a man in 2014. He had also been convicted of murder in 1998.

Abbott was charged this week in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Though he denied owning the gun found in the car, .40-caliber handguns are something Abbott has some familiarity with.

On Aug. 24, 2014, the same caliber gun was used to shoot and kill 30-year-old Darrell Fennell Jr. near Truman Road and Woodland Avenue.

According to court records, two witnesses, who knew Abbott as “Red,” identified him as the person who shot Fennell.

Two days after Fennell was killed, police officers found Abbott. He was carrying five .40-caliber rounds of ammunition in his pocket.

He was asked why he had ammunition in his pocket.

“Abbott stated he liked to play with ammunition,” a detective wrote in a sworn affidavit.

Federal prosecutors charged him with being a felon in possession of ammunition.

His previous conviction was for second-degree murder. Abbott had spent 15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the 1998 crime.

He had only been out on parole for four months when Fennell was fatally shot.

In September 2014, Jackson County prosecutors charged Abbott with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in Fennell’s killing.

According to court documents filed in the Jackson County murder case, laboratory testing linked a .40-caliber handgun with the bullets from Abbott’s pocket and shell casings found at the scene of the homicide.

But the federal ammunition possession case proceeded first. Abbott pleaded guilty and in September 2015. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

U.S. Bureau of Prisons records don’t indicate when Abbot was released, but on January 11, he pleaded guilty in Jackson County to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in the 2014 killing of Fennell.

He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation for five years, according to Jackson County court records.

As a result of the new arrest for possessing the firearm, Abbott could have both his state and federal probation revoked, as well as being sentenced to up to 10 years in prison on the new charge.