Kansas City man sentenced to life in federal prison in 2017 kidnapping, homicide
A third man has been sentenced in the killing of a Kansas City teenager who was kidnapped at gunpoint and fatally shot in Kansas City, Kansas, in April 2017.
Following a hearing Wednesday in Kansas City’s downtown federal courthouse, Judge Roseann Ketchmark sentenced Jonathan M. Bravo-Lopez to life in prison. The 27-year-old was convicted at trial in December 2022 of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping resulting in the death of Cristian Escutia, 19, of Kansas City.
Bravo-Lopez stood trial along with co-defendant Juan D. Osorio, 30, who was also found guilty in the conspiracy. Osorio was sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At trial, prosecutors said Osorio and Bravo-Lopez lured Escuita with an arrangement to buy $300 worth of marijuana. He was forced at gunpoint to enter a vehicle and taken from Missouri to Kansas, where he was shot three times and left on the side of the street in the 200 block of Donovan Avenue, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors relied in part on a home video surveillance system that captured footage of Escuita entering a vehicle outside his home.
Also convicted in the conspiracy was Marco Sosa-Perea, 27, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to spend 10 years in federal prison. Prosecutors alleged Sosa-Perea drove the vehicle used in Escutia’s kidnapping.
