Kansas City woman charged as accessory to murder in shooting over stolen Lexus
A Kansas City woman is accused of three felonies, including accessory to murder, for an August shooting over a stolen Lexus that left one man dead, according to court documents.
Prosecutors this week charged Alyssa J. Tuscan, 27, as an accessory to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of 40-year-old Phillip Roberts. As of Wednesday, she was being held in the Jackson County jail on a $500,000 bond.
Around 2:15 a.m. on Aug. 3, Kansas City police officers were dispatched to a reported shooting in the 1800 block of Askew Avenue. The officers found Roberts dead of gunshot wounds when they arrived.
He was found in an open lot near a 2007 black Lexus, which had been reported stolen the day before.
Witnesses told police a man and woman drove up in a silver sedan and started yelling at Roberts about getting the Lexus back from him. After shooting him, they ran and drove away in the car they arrived in, according to a Kansas City police detective’s affidavit in support of criminal charges.
A surveillance camera near the shooting site captured footage of a silver sedan being driven away. It had a distinctive body style and damage, according to the affidavit, and was spotted by other city cameras in the area.
Detectives connected the vehicle to one that had been abandoned and burned less than an hour after the shooting. Another surveillance camera caught video of the car being set on fire and its driver being picked up by someone in a white minivan.
The burned car, also determined to be stolen, was towed away and searched. Inside, police reported finding two hospital patient bracelets, including one with Tuscan’s name on it, the affidavit says.
Another witness later told detectives Roberts had driven by in a black Lexus roughly 20 minutes before the shooting. Shortly after that, the witness said, Tuscan and the other suspect, described in court documents as Co-Defendant #1, drove up in a silver car asking where Roberts was.
Both were allegedly armed with handguns at the time.
During a police interview in mid-August, Tuscan allegedly admitted to being present when Roberts was killed. She told them she had sold the stolen Lexus to someone and wanted it back, the affidavit says.
Tuscan said there was an argument before she witnessed the person she was with “unload a clip” on Roberts, according to the affidavit. She also allegedly admitted to later driving a white minivan and picking him up from where the silver sedan was burned.
Records show Tuscan was arrested on her felony warrant Monday and made her initial court appearance Wednesday. A Jackson County judge ordered that she be screened for representation by the Missouri Public Defender’s Office.
