Kansas City man charged with murder in February slaying: prosecutors
A 19-year-old is accused of fatally shooting Sharriff Tilghman, a 49-year-old man found dead a stolen car that was crashed into a snowbank in Kansas City’s Blue Valley industrial area in February.
Isaiah Thomas is charged with second-degree murder and unlawful weapon use in the slaying, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday. Prosecutors are asking that he be held on $250,000 bond.
According to court records, Thomas was developed as a suspect after investigators found DNA on a face mask in the vehicle where Tilghman’s body was found. Police also traced the murder weapon, a 9mm handgun, to a person who shared the same residence as Thomas in the Blue Hills neighborhood.
Police were first called to the homicide scene around 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 after receiving a report of a shooting there. Officers were directed by a person who was found in the driver’s seat of a car, still running, that had crashed into a snowbank near a parking lot in the 7200 block of E. 17th Street.
Kansas City Fire Department paramedics also responded and declared Tilghman dead on scene.
Detectives learned that the car had been reported stolen earlier that day by Tilghman’s girlfriend, the owner, according to court records. On scene investigators found nine bullet casings and noted several bullet holes that had come from outside the car.
Surveillance video showed the car pull into the area around an hour earlier. A person was seen exiting the passenger side, standing near where the bullet casings were found and then running away. Another camera captured the person jumping over a chain-link fence.
Following the car’s earlier patterns, detectives found video surveillance footage from multiple area gas stations roughly an hour before the killing. In one, a passenger — identified by police as Thomas — was seen trying to buy tobacco from the counter but walked away after being turned down for not presenting ID. The video showed what appeared to be a white-colored cast that was seen on another surveillance camera.
On Feb. 9, one week after the killing, detectives returned to the property and received a consent to search the area where the suspected shooter jumped the fence. They brought a K-9 dog that sniffed out three 9mm rounds with a head stamp that matched the ones found outside the shooting scene.
Gray sweatpants resembling ones seen in surveillance footage were also found during that search, according to court records, as well as an empty gun magazine and a 9mm handgun.
Testing confirmed the gun as the murder weapon, court records state. The gun was traced by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. A report showed that it had been purchased by a 54-year-old woman in May the previous year. The woman who bought the gun, whose identity is withheld in court records, resided in the same home as Thomas, court records state.
Kansas City police officers began surveilling Thomas afterward. On May 14, he was seen leaving a residence in a vehicle with an expired license plate, according to police, and was pulled over for a traffic violation.
Officers saw a large lump on his hand. He allegedly told detectives that he had surgery on his hand in February and removed the cast early.
Reviewing the victim’s cellphone, detectives found two phone calls allegedly placed to Thomas on the day of the killing. Authorities allege a comparison of location data from both of their cellphones showed they had been within range of cell towers within the same geographic area on the day of the killing.
On May 28, around 9:15 a.m., a lab report came back showing the likely presence of Thomas’ DNA on a face mask found on the front passenger floorboard of the victim’s car.
Court records do not indicate whether Thomas’ was interviewed by detectives about the killing. No motive is outlined in charging documents. Court records did not list a defense attorney representing Thomas as of Thursday.
The killing of Tilghman marked the city’s 14th homicide of 2022. So far this year, Kansas City has seen 48 slayings, according to data maintained by The Star.
This story was originally published April 28, 2022 at 8:08 PM.
