Kansas City man accused of fatally shooting victim over $5,000 debt in September
A Kansas City man was charged Thursday in connection with a September killing of a man whose body was found a week later in a vacant home.
Nicolas Saldana-Damian, 26, is charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was charged last month with abandonment of a corpse, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Police on Sept. 14 found the body in a home in the 3600 block of Gregory Boulevard, according to charging documents filed in Jackson County Circuit Court. The documents did not give the victim’s name.
The body, police said, was already decomposing. A witness told police that the victim was last heard from on September 5 and had told someone he had visited a duplex owned by Saldana-Damian’s father in the area where his body was found.
Another witness, prosecutors allege, told police that he, a woman and Saldana-Damian had met the victim at the home. The witness said he waited outside while the other three went into the house. While outside, court records said, the witness heard six gunshots.
According to court records, Saldana-Damian asked the witness to come in and confirm the victim was dead before telling him that he owed the victim $5,000 for drugs and did not want to pay.
In an interview with police, records alleged, Saldana-Damian said he shot the victim during an argument after he had taken the gun away from him. He admitted to tossing the body down the stairs in an effort to hide the body.
Saldana-Damian is being held in the Jackson County jail at $300,000 bond. His attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.
The man’s death was the 145th homicide in Kansas City in 2020. This year is Kansas City’s deadliest year on record with 179 killings according to data maintained by The Star which includes fatal police shootings.
Gun violence is the subject of a statewide journalism project The Star is undertaking in Missouri this year in partnership with the national service program Report for America and sponsored in part by Missouri Foundation for Health. As part of this project, The Star will seek the community’s help.
To contribute, visit Report for America online at reportforamerica.org.
