Man pleads no contest in shooting that killed 12-year-old Kansas City boy
A Leavenworth man has pleaded no contest to a second-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy from Kansas City.
Darvon Deshawn Thomas, 26, entered the plea during a hearing Tuesday in Leavenworth County District Court. Thomas is one of three people criminally charged in connection with the killing of Brian “BJ” Henderson of Kansas City’s Santa Fe neighborhood.
Two juveniles, whose names are withheld in court records and by prosecutors, are also standing trial in the killing.
Henderson was fatally shot while in the backseat of a car on the evening of April 14 in the parking lot of the Kare Pharmacy in the 2500 block of South Fourth Street.
According to court records, two others present with Thomas told investigators he was going to the pharmacy to purchase a handgun from someone in the parking lot for $400. As Thomas waited and watched from his car, court records allege, money was exchanged for a firearm that was quickly discovered to be a BB gun.
At that point, Thomas allegedly ordered another defendant “to get them because they were taking his money,” according to court records. Then the juvenile began firing at the vehicle Henderson was in, a detective wrote in charging documents.
Henderson was rushed to Children’s Mercy Hospital in the bullet-riddled car after the shooting. He was pronounced dead there after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.
In an interview with The Star last year, the Henderson family described the boy shot and killed as a bright and talented young athlete with aspirations to one day become an NFL star. They said Henderson and his older sister, Brooke, had gone for a ride with an acquaintance of hers who — unbeknownst to the family — had set up the gun deal gone wrong.
“There’s no bringing back my son,” Monica Henderson, his mother, told The Star during an earlier interview. “And I want everyone held accountable for their part.”
Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced March 9.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 7:36 PM.
