11-year-old’s death shook KC. Her killer is now sentenced to 20 years in prison
A Jackson County judge on Monday sentenced a Raytown teen to 20 years in prison in the 2024 fatal shooting of 11-year-old Kourtney Freeman — a killing that reignited community outrage over violence against children.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Adam Caine sentenced Re’Mori T. Roath, who turned 18 just a few weeks ago, to the maximum prison term prosecutors had asked for under a plea agreement, court records show. Roath pleaded guilty in November to second-degree felony murder in the death of 11-year-old Kourtney Freeman.
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss three other felony charges: two counts of armed criminal action and one count of unlawful use of a weapon/shooting from a vehicle at a building resulting in death. Roath’s plea came just days before he was scheduled for a jury trial.
According to court documents, Kourtney was shot and killed while getting ready for bed in her home near East 33rd Street and Flora Avenue in the Linwood Homeowners-Ivanhoe neighborhood shortly after 9:45 p.m. on April 10, 2024.
Arriving officers were led inside the home, where they found her unresponsive. She was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital.
According to the prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum, there were six other victims inside the home who were not struck by gunfire.
Detectives connected Roath to the shooting through the use of city cameras, license plate readers, phone records, and ballistic evidence — including a 9mm shell casing found outside Kourtney’s home that traced back to a gun found under Roath’s mattress in his bedroom, according to court documents.
“Not only did a family and community lose a child, but several individuals were held under siege in a home where it was being riddled with bullets,” prosecutors said in their memorandum. “Those same people were forced to bear witness to an eleven-year-old girl getting shot and killed in their presence inside their home.”
Prosecutors argued that every time her family returns home, passes the vestibule where she died, or sees a picture of her in better times, they will be traumatized again, prosecutors said.
“They will never see her smiles or her tears,” prosecutors said in the memorandum.
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 4:24 PM.
