Kansas City man sentenced to 24 years in prison for wife’s 2018 killing: prosecutors
A Kansas City man has been sentenced to 24 years in a Missouri prison for the fatal shooting of his wife and mother of his children, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Damon Kerr, 46, was sentenced on a second-degree murder conviction following a jury trial that concluded in March, according to the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office. Judge John M. Torrence ordered Kerr to serve 24 years for the murder and three years for armed criminal action, with the sentences set to run consecutively.
According to charging documents, Kansas City police were called in the early hours of Nov. 25, 2018, to a residence in the 3400 block of East 54th Street on a reported shooting. Donna McKeown was found in a vehicle parked outside the home, slumped over in the passenger seat with an apparent gunshot wound to her neck.
During a police interview at the scene, Kerr said he was inside when he heard gunfire and walked outside to find McKeown shot. He told police he and McKeown had argued because he arrived home around 2:30 a.m. that morning.
Authorities alleged Kerr changed his story hours later when interviewed again at police headquarters. He allegedly told them that he was speaking to her outside before the shooting happened, according to court records.
Investigators were given permission to search his cellphone for evidence. Among the records allegedly found and used as evidence was a Google search for how to remove gunshot residue from one’s hands and text messages between Kerr and McKeown.
