North Kansas City teen sentenced to prison in murder of high school student
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge sentenced Mikael Hickman-Perry to 16 years for 2024 murder of teen.
- Conviction included second-degree murder and armed criminal action charges.
- Police used surveillance and witness reports to link suspect to homicide scene.
A Jackson County judge sentenced an 18-year-old North Kansas City man to 16 years in prison for the killing of a high school student last fall, according to court documents.
In June, a jury found Mikael L. Hickman-Perry guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Christopher Avila, who had turned 18 in August and was in his senior year of high school.
Judge Adam Caine on Wednesday ordered the sentences — 13 years in prison for the second-degree murder and three years for the armed criminal action — to run consecutively.
According to court documents, Kansas City police responded to a medical call about 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 24 at the intersection of East 17th Street and Cambridge Avenue in the East Blue Valley neighborhood.
There, they found Avila dead with visible injuries. Witnesses reported hearing an argument and gunshots the night before. Surveillance video showed a red-orange Jeep Renegade at the scene.
Avila’s family told detectives that he left home around 9 p.m. with Hickman-Perry in a red-orange Jeep, and they were unable to reach him later.
Detectives responded to Hickman-Perry’s apartment complex in North Kansas City, where they saw his Jeep parked several blocks away from his apartment and saw him remove several items from it. Detectives also saw what appeared to be blood on the ceiling of the Jeep.
Shortly thereafter, Hickman-Perry left with others in a white SUV, and detectives followed, arresting him when the SUV stopped at a gas station in Lawrence.
