The 15-year-old boy accused of killing Shaun Brady, a popular Irish chef in Kansas City, should be tried in adult court because it was a “vicious, forceful and violent act” that endangered the community, Jackson County juvenile authorities said Tuesday.
But the boy’s attorney described K.H., known by his initials because he is a minor, as a “desperate, starving child” forced to sell drugs at 10 years old to feed himself and his siblings. Addicted to the narcotic Percocet since the age of 4, when he first was treated for cancer, K.H. started drinking when he was 11 or 12 and tested positive for marijuana when he was arrested, attorney Kirby Crick said.
Crick argued at a Jackson County Family Court hearing that K.H. should be placed in a juvenile facility where he could get treatment, pursue his high school diploma, learn social skills and further process his trauma.
K.H. is charged with second-degree murder, attempted stealing and armed criminal action in the fatal shooting of Brady, a 44-year-old father who was killed outside his Brookside restaurant, Brady & Fox, at 63rd Street and Rockhill Road on Aug. 28, 2024.
Bouncing between parents who were both addicted to drugs and suffering from mental illness, K.H. was “neglected in every aspect of his life,” and no one ever intervened to help the child, Crick said.
“Prison and a felony conviction would lead him further down the path to destruction,” Crick said.
Sandy Hawkins, a deputy juvenile officer who investigated K.H.’s case, agreed on the details of K.H.’s life. But Hawkins said the teen deserves to be tried as an adult because of the violence he’s accused of, in addition to putting other lives at risk near the busy corner pub.
“This is a brazen violent act that endangered the whole community,” Hawkins said.
Police found seven 9 mm shell casings in the parking lot behind the restaurant, where Brady was going to a dumpster to throw away some boxes about 5:15 p.m., said Clyde Harvey, a Kansas City Police Department homicide detective. Brady saw several people who had pulled up in a black Hyundai Elantra and were attempting to get into Brady’s red Hyundai Sonata, he said.
There was a spate of Hyundai thefts last summer because they were easy to steal by breaking off a door handle, Harvey said.
Brady told them to stop “messing with his car,” and the would-be thieves jumped in the Elantra to leave, Harvey said. But they got stalled in the lot’s exit by a line of cars, and while waiting to leave, Brady started walking up to the driver’s side of the Elantra, he said.
Harvey, who was describing the surveillance tape shown in court, said the Elantra’s driver got out, got in a “shooter’s stance” and pointed something at Brady.
“We just see Brady fall to the ground,” Harvey said.
One round hit Brady in the chest and another hit a nearby house, Harvey said. DNA tests showed that K.H. was driving the car, he said. Police had a partial plate number for the stolen Elantra, and K.H. was found in Midtown and arrested with another teen. That 17-year-old, L.M., who was also charged with second-degree murder, was released in December and all charges were dropped.
Crick questioned Harvey about Brady's autopsy, which showed positive tests for cannabis, cocaine and alcohol. Crick asked whether those substances would have made Brady more aggressive, scaring others, but Harvey said he didn't know.
K.H., who had his hand and foot shackles removed for the hearing, was dressed in street clothes, not the detention facility jumpsuit he’d worn to past hearings. K.H.’s mother was not at the hearing, and his father sat briefly in the last row of the courtroom.
At least one abuse and neglect charge had been brought up against K.H.’s parents in 2010, but nothing came of it, Crick said.
The teen suffers from several mental diagnoses, has impulse and anger issues, and once pushed his mother down a set of stairs when she refused to give him money to buy drugs, Hawkins said. His mother gave him Narcan, a nasal spray for narcotic overdose, at least twice, she said.
Still, the only person K.H. trusts is his mother, who he has seen be abused, and he sees himself as her protector, Hawkins said. His mother told Hawkins that K.H. was “generally a sweet kid” until he turned 11 and was forced to stay away from school during the pandemic. He then ran away and started using lots of drugs and carrying a weapon, and she was worried he was involved in a gang.
The hearing concludes on April 22. Family Court Judge Jennifer Phillips will rule on whether K.H.'s case will be moved to adult court.
