Kansas City man accused of fatally shooting victim, pulling his body out of a truck
A Kansas City man has been charged for allegedly shooting the driver of a truck he was inside in July and pulling the victim’s body from it, prosecutors said Monday.
Jonathan Bradford, 38, was charged with second-degree murder, abandonment of a corpse and other crimes in the July 22 killing of 35-year-old Lodiller Styles.
Officers were called before 7 p.m. that day to East 40th Street and Tracy Avenue, where they found Styles suffering from gunshot wounds in the middle of the street, police said.
A witness told police she was in Styles’ blue pickup truck with the men when Styles, who was driving, pulled over to let out Bradford. He attempted to get out, but the doors were locked.
Styles asked Bradford to not pull on the door handles. He told him instead to use the window and reach outside to open the door, according to police.
Bradford uttered “OK,” but then suddenly shot Styles in the head, according to Jackson County prosecutors. Styles’ truck then hit a nearby van.
Other witnesses told police they then saw a man pull a bloody person from the truck and throw him to the ground. Witnesses also told police they heard a man say, “Look what she did.”
Bradford then struck Styles’ body as he drove away, according to prosecutors.
Before the killing, the witness told police, she noticed Bradford was smoking “hash” from a glass bong and sweating, according to charging documents.
When Bradford was arrested, officers recovered a pistol of the same caliber that was used in the killing, according to prosecutors.
In an interview with detectives, Bradford said he was in Styles’ truck when “all chaos broke out,” police said.
Detectives showed him a Facebook message he sent a relative in which he wrote in part: “I was just thinking everybody keep saying I did this ... than f--- it yes I did do it.” Bradford, however, maintained he did not shoot Styles, court records show.
Prosecutors requested Bradford’s bond be set at $300,000.
Bradford did not have an attorney listed in court records who could be reached for comment as of Monday.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 1:41 PM.
