Alleged white supremacist accused of killing woman in Shawnee is ordered to trial
A man who compared his rage to “The Exorcist” was ordered to trial Tuesday for the killing of a woman last summer in Shawnee.
Ronald Lee Kidwell is charged in Johnson County District Court with intentional second-degree murder in the death of MeShon Cooper.
Cooper, 43, was found dead last July. Her body was stuffed into a trash can that was found in the garage of the Shawnee home where Kidwell lived.
Her carotid artery had been severed and she had suffered multiple cuts and stab wounds to the neck and face, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing in court Tuesday.
“This was a very angry, violent encounter,” Assistant District Attorney Jason Covington said.
According to testimony, Kidwell gave police several different versions of what happened to Cooper before finally telling them that he had killed her in a rage after she threatened to tell people he was HIV positive.
Shawnee police detective Matt Seichepine said Kidwell told investigators the following:
“When I get mad, I make the exorcist look like a bitch.”
After the killing, the FBI said it was investigating to determine if Kidwell could also be prosecuted for a federal hate crime.
Kidwell, 48, is white and Cooper was black.
Kidwell’s daughter told The Star that he was a white supremacist who had a history of assaulting black people.
An FBI spokeswoman said there were no updates on the hate crime investigation. There was no testimony about it at Tuesday’s hearing.
After the hearing, District Judge Timothy McCarthy ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial. He set a scheduling conference for March 27 for Kidwell, who is jailed on a $1 million bond.
This story was originally published February 19, 2019 at 1:38 PM.
