Kansas City man convicted in Northland slaying faces second murder charge
A 24-year-old man awaiting sentencing in a grisly Gladstone murder is now accused of a separate killing where a man was found shot to death in Kansas City with his hands tied behind his back.
Noah T. Cole, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty March 1 in Clay County to one count of second-degree murder for the killing of 33-year-old Matthew Stauch, who was found stabbed to death after his Gladstone apartment was set on fire on Nov. 27, 2021.
On Thursday, Jackson County prosecutors charged Cole in the killing of Justin Doza-Adams, 27, who was found shot to death two days later in a vacant lot in the North Blue Ridge neighborhood.
Cole was allegedly linked to both homicides by physical evidence, including DNA, recovered from at least three crime scenes over a three-day span, according to charging documents filed Thursday.
Witnesses also placed him at the scenes of both killings, authorities allege, including one who told detectives Cole killed Doza-Adams over a drug debt.
Doza-Adams was found in a vacant lot on Nov. 29, 2021, when Kansas City police officers were dispatched to Independence and Potter avenues on a report of a dead body.
Doza-Adams had been shot, and his hands were tied behind his back with a black rope. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
On the ground, crime scene investigators saw zip ties, duct tape and more black rope that appeared similar to items found inside a vehicle at the Gladstone apartment complex where Stauch was found dead two days earlier.
Detectives in Gladstone, meanwhile, were investigating the homicide of Stauch, whose body was discovered after a neighbor called 911 to report a fire. Stauch was stabbed approximately 40 times with a small blade, the medical examiner found, and charring observed on his body led investigators to conclude the killer lit him on fire.
Several items of value were missing from Stauch’s apartment, including a guitar signed by the cast of “Seinfeld,” the detectives learned. Missing from the parking lot was a Toyota Camry registered to Stauch.
On the same day of the fire and subsequent discovery of Stauch’s body, there was a shooting in Raytown that left a woman wounded. Cole was a suspect in that also, according to court documents.
Forensics specialists with the Kansas City Crime Lab determined shell casings at all three crime scenes — Stauch’s homicide, Doza-Adams’ homicide and the Raytown shooting — came from one gun.
Witnesses led investigators to Cole’s residence in the 6000 block of St. John Avenue. Belongings of Stauch’s were found, including the missing guitar, tax papers and a prescription bottle, after Kansas City after police executed a search warrant there.
In December 2021, Cole was arrested and charged in Clay County with Stauch’s death. During the arrest, authorities allege they discovered a shell casing in Cole’s possession that matched the others taken as evidence in the other investigations.
After his arrest, DNA samples taken from Cole were also compared with shell casings at the homicide scene, the rope used to bind Doza-Adams and swabs taken from Doza-Adams’ wrists. The Kansas City Crime Lab also found those comparisons matched to Cole, according to court documents.
Under Missouri law, Cole faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder in Jackson County.
As part of his plea agreement in Clay County, prosecutors there will recommend Cole spend 28 years in prison for killing Stauch. Cole is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on May 10.
