Suspected KC serial killer resentenced to 30 years in prison for stalking, gun crimes
Robert J. Gross, who Kansas City detectives believe was a serial killer but was never charged with murder, was resentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison on federal stalking and gun convictions.
Gross, 70, was previously sentenced to 35 years in prison, but his sentence was vacated after an appeals court agreed there was insufficient evidence to support one of his convictions.
Gross has long been a suspect in several women’s killings but has never been charged with murder. In 2019, he was convicted of eight charges that included stalking women who worked at massage parlors in Johnson County and Lawrence. He was also found guilty of possessing guns as a convicted felon and other firearms violations. He was acquitted on two other stalking counts.
None of Gross’ convictions were related to the unsolved murders, arsons and assaults he has been suspected of over the past five decades. The Star detailed those allegations as part of a six-part series in 2018.
At his 2020 sentencing, prosecutors contended that Gross “brutally murdered and decapitated” a woman found inside a burning Kansas City, North, apartment, although that was not part of the case. Judge Gary A. Fenner told Gross that his history of violence was “extremely disturbing.”
The next year, Gross challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his interstate stalking charges. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that one of the two counts should be vacated because it did not involve a crime that crossed state lines.
For that count, prosecutors argued Gross traveled from his Missouri home to harass an employee at a Lawrence parlor. The appeals court vacated the conviction because Gross only began to berate the woman, threatening to call immigration authorities on her, once he became angry with her at the Kansas store.
In court filings, prosecutors asked that Gross be sentenced again to 35 years. His lawyer, John O’Connor, asked for 30 years.
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 5:07 PM.
