KC mother accused of helping 33-year-old son escape police custody, faces charges
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The mother of a Kansas City man, who was arrested Friday after escaping Cass County Jail, has been charged in federal court with helping him evade authorities.
Dawn Branstietter, 54, of Blue Springs was charged with assisting an escape from confinement alongside 38-year-old Nicholas Parris, in court documents filed with the U.S District Court in Kansas City.
Branstietter’s son, Trevor Sparks, fled custody while awaiting sentencing for his role in a drug trafficking ring, multiple assaults, and two homicides, according to court documents. Both he and Sergio Perez-Martinez, another detainee awaiting sentencing for charges related to drug distribution, escaped, but Perez-Martinez remains on the run from police.
Sparks discussed the escape attempt with his mother before he fled. In phone conversations, he told her to make sure there was gas in the car because “You are probably going to pick me up real soon. Real, real, real soon,” said court documents.
“Just be ready,” he told her, according to court documents.
He called her multiple times to further plan the escape, but she did not answer her phone, documents said. As a result, Sparks called Steven Lydell Williams, 64, of Kansas City, for help contacting his mother. When she continued to miss Sparks’ calls, Williams was recruited to assist in the operation. He picked Sparks up at a local Casey’s store on Dec. 5, following the escape with Perez-Martinez, documents said.
Williams was charged in a separate criminal complaint on Dec. 7 with aiding or assisting in the escape.
Police interviewed Branstietter on Dec. 9 at her home, where she refused to divulge any information about her son’s whereabouts. Both she and her husband told police they would go to prison if it meant their son could be free, documents said.
On Branstietter’s Facebook account, investigators discovered messages between her and Parris about a trip to Texas. Parris is the ex-boyfriend of Sparks’ sister, who lives in Texas. Communication between Parris and Branstietter grew in the days leading up to the escape from Cass County Jail. Many of the messages were cryptic or sent through voice and video messages, according to court documents.
On Friday morning at 10:16 a.m., Sparks was seen leaving the backyard of a Blue Springs residence that Branstietter had been visiting frequently. He got into a vehicle with his mother and drove to the home of Parris, where police were waiting to arrest them, documents said.
Sparks was apprehended by investigators at 11:15 a.m. near the 400 block of Olive Street, according to a Friday release.
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 11:43 PM.
