homicide

Melesa Johnson is six months into her role as Jackson County Prosecutor after winning election last year. Faced with concerns about burglaries and property crimes, Johnson has drastically increased the rate at which her office has pursued charges, and points to the success of a deterrence initiative.

Kansas Citians are fed up with dangerous and reckless street racing and stunt driving, which led to the injury of one officer earlier this month. KCPD Police Chief Stacey Graves said the department has operations planned to curb it, and are working with elected officials to increase penalties for participants and spectators.

Prosecutor Melesa Johnson’s office is supporting a state bill that would add animal control officers to the list of those who must report any suspected child or elder abuse. Animal abuse is seen as a “predictor crime” for potential violence toward people.

Danette Colbert, 48, was already charged with theft and using the credit card of Adan Manzano, 27, an anchor and reporter for Telemundo in Kansas City. He was in New Orleans to cover the Super Bowl. The manner of Manzano’s death is still undetermined, but he had a high level of alcohol and Xanax in his system, the Jefferson Parish coroner said.

After being sworn into office last month, new Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson has already changed the county's role in domestic violence cases.

Sharon Kinne, who fled Kansas City in 1964 after being acquitted of two murders, was the subject of one of the longest outstanding murder warrants in the area. She was convicted of another murder in Mexico in 1964, escaped from prison in 1969 and died in 2022 in Canada.

In an unusual court proceeding that began in October, the ACLU and other attorneys asserted that Kansas' death penalty law should be struck down because prospective jurors must be willing to impose capital punishment to serve — meaning that Black jurors get disproportionately excluded.

Kansas City made a concerted effort to support unhoused individuals in the first major winter storm of 2025, Mayor Quinton Lucas said in an interview with Up To Date. But the mayor admitted the city isn't where it should be in its housing policies — including in building a low-barrier shelter.

Melesa Johnson, 35, will be sworn in as Jackson County's prosecutor on Friday. She says she will keep some of Baker's policies, tweak others and offer her own.

The homicide rate dipped to the lowest number in the last six years, said Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves. But the number of people who were shot and survived increased by nearly 12%, leaving hundreds of people with gunshot wounds.

Jackson County Juvenile Court released 17-year-old “L.M.” last Wednesday, without comment, after more than three months in custody. A second juvenile, 15, is still being held in the killing of Shaun Brady, a popular Irish pub owner.

Sgt. Sarah Roque was first reported missing from Fort Leonard Wood in central Missouri earlier this week. Army authorities said they have arrested a person of interest in the case.