Details change again, 5th friend speaks out after 3 men found dead at KC home
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two weeks after three friends were found dead outside a Kansas City home, an attorney involved is changing his story yet again.
Attorney John Picerno told FOX4 on Monday there was a fifth person hanging out at the home where Clayton McGeeney, David Harrington and Ricky Johnson were later found.
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It happened at a rental home near N.W. 83rd Terrace and N. Overland Drive in Platte County. The three victims, as well as the tenant Jordan Willis and a fifth friend, had all gathered to watch the Kansas City Chiefs’ last regular season game on Jan. 7.
In a statement Saturday, Picerno said the last time Willis saw the three men was when they left the house and he went to bed.
But then Picerno confirmed to FOX4 on Monday that a fifth person was present and still there with the three victims when Willis went to sleep.
“At some point, he got tired and went to sleep while there were these guys in the home, and as I know now there was a couple of other people in the home,” Picerno said Monday.
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Now one day later, Picerno said he misspoke. The attorney said Willis escorted the men to the door, said their goodbyes, then went back to the couch and fell asleep.
The 5th friend
FOX4 spoke with the fifth person who was at the home via phone. At this point, we’re not naming him.
He said when he left, the three victims and Willis were still awake. He stressed that it’s absolutely not true that he was the last person to see the three men alive.
After asking a few more questions, he directed FOX4 to his attorney, Andrew Talge.
In an interview with FOX4, Talge said his client arrived at Willis’ house around 7 p.m. that Sunday. He said his client was hanging out with the four others until about midnight. It’s at that point when he left.
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According to Talge, when his client left Willis’s home, the four men were watching Jeopardy. Most importantly, he said they were still alive during those early hours Monday.
Picerno has said multiple times, that the only messages Willis received were via Facebook Messenger; he didn’t receive any text messages or calls.
But Talge disputes part of that, saying sometime Tuesday, his client received a text message from Clayton McGeeney’s fiancée and from Ricky Johnson’s mother, asking about their loved ones.
At that point Talge’s client sent a text message to Willis and to Johnson. He never received a response, the attorney said.
FOX4 asked Picerno about this discrepancy, and he declined to comment.
‘A lot of holes’
It’s just one of many inconsistencies in the story of what happened in the hours and days after family and friends lost contact with the three men before they were ultimately found dead.
“It’s got a lot of holes in it. Like last time he saw them, they were leaving the house, but he didn’t know they had left. That doesn’t make much sense,” Caleb McGeeney, cousin of Clayton McGeeney told FOX4 in an interview Monday.
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In an interview with NewsNation on Friday night, Picerno said his client had left the home sporadically on Monday and Tuesday.
He reversed course on Monday, saying that what he said was poorly phrased and offered a new explanation.
“What I meant to say on NewsNation is that he left — he was sleeping, and he left his bedroom sporadically,” he said.
On the same day that FOX4 confirmed these three bodies were found behind Willis’s home, we reached out to him to no avail, as well as to several of his family members.
A close family member got back with FOX4 and told us Willis said his friends “froze to death.” It’s something his attorney now argues he never said.
Picerno said his client never left the house from Sunday’s gathering to watch the Chiefs game until after police arrived Tuesday night.
Willis’s attorney said he didn’t receive any text messages or calls, didn’t hear anyone knock on his door, and didn’t see the messages sent to him on Facebook Messenger until after the bodies were discovered.
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Picerno also said Willis didn’t hear McGeeney’s fiancée knock on the door or break into the home.
But minutes later, he did hear police knock on the door when they arrived at his home — after McGeeney’s fiancée discovered one of the bodies outside.
Picerno confirmed with FOX4 that Willis has moved out of the Northland home after seeing a U-Haul parked outside of the house less than a week after the bodies were discovered.
What’s next?
FOX4 asked Picerno if drugs could have played a role in what took place at this Northland home. He said at this time they are still working to determine that.
At last check, KCPD said they are still waiting on autopsy results and a toxicology report from the medical examiner.
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Those will help them determine a cause of death so police can finish their part of the investigation.
We know that the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office has been in communication with Kansas City police, but the case has not yet been turned over to them.
Willis is not facing any charges in this case at this time.
