As federal executions return, prosecutors seek death penalty for pair in KC killings
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday they plan to seek the death penalty for two men indicted in pair Kansas City-area killings.
The defendants, Shawn Burkhalter, 30, of Kansas City, and Joshua Nesbitt, 25, of Crowder, Mississippi, were charged last year in U.S. District Court in Kansas City in the 2015 shooting deaths of Anthony Dwayne Johnson and Danny Lamont Dean.
Both face a host of charges, including using a firearm to commit murder in relation to a drug-trafficking crime and murdering a potential witness.
The 2015 killings were allegedly committed while Burkhalter and Nesbitt were attempting to steal drugs they intended to sell, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Timothy Garrison signed and filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case.
The filing comes days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week it would resume executions of death row inmates for the first time since 2003.
According to the release, prosecutors allege the pair also planned to kill or threaten one of the victims, Johnson, to stop him from testifying in court or talking to law enforcement.
A superseding indictment handed up by a grand jury Tuesday contained additional charges against the pair. Burkhalter and Nesbitt are each charged with evidence tampering, and Burkhalter faces a charge of witness tampering for allegedly using another person to threaten a witness while he was being detained, the news release said.
According to the news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is arguing that a death sentence is justified for the Kansas City-area murders because they occurred “in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.” It goes on to state that a death sentence is justified in Johnson’s murder and because Johnson was a potential witness, and his death was “in furtherance of an evidence-tampering conspiracy.”
Along with Burkhalter and Nesbitt, five other people were named in the original indictment last year on charges of drug trafficking and tampering with witnesses and evidence. Among them were: Sharika Hooker, 30, of Kansas City; Autry Hines, 28, of Kansas City; Nickayla Jones, 24, of Blue Springs; Rachel Ryce, 31, of Raytown; and Joslyn Lee, 27, of Blue Springs.
Court records show Lee pleaded guilty in February to a drug trafficking offense, aiding and abetting the possession and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, accessory after the fact to murder, conspiracy to tamper with a witness and evidence, and accessory after the fact by hiding evidence.
The release also said that the superseding indictment filed Tuesday added a sixth co-defendant: Anthony Peltier, of Lawrence.
This story was originally published July 31, 2019 at 6:00 PM.
