KBI: Lansing inmate was killed less than a year from release
LANSING, Kan. — Less than one year before a Lansing, Kansas, inmate was set to be released from prison, he died.
His mom said investigators told her he was murdered.
Execution date set for Missouri man who killed couple in 2006
On Wednesday, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation confirmed Darion Charles-Lott’s death has been ruled a homicide.
Lansing Correctional Facility staff found the 29-year-old unresponsive in his cell on Nov. 25. Despite life-saving measures, he was pronounced dead.
On Friday, Kenya Charles will spend the day burying her son, something she never imagined she would have to do.
“My heart dropped when I got the call, and it just shocked me. It’s a hurting feeling every day I think about him wishing he’ll call, call on me,” Kenya said.
So what she thought would be a homecoming with her son in less than a year — after he was sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison — is something she just won’t get.
Clay County residents’ mail goes missing amid worries about theft
“He loved his family. Everybody was excited for him to come home, waiting for him to come home,” she said.
Charles said her son was a changed man, not letting a mistake he made when he was a teenager define where he could go or who he could be.
Charles-Lott was convicted of aggravated battery in his early teen years. That sentence was going to be over soon — until his death last month.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said the final results of his autopsy are still pending, but officials determined he was strangled to death.
The male suspect, a fellow inmate, has been identified, the KBI said. But at this time he hasn’t been arrested or charged in this case.
For Kenya, the nearly 3-week wait for answers felt like an eternity.
Tenants face new problem at KC-area senior living complex after power outage
“I want justice. I want answers. I want the truth. I want the truth. It frustrates me. I’m getting angrier and angrier each day about my child being hurt like that,” she said Tuesday before the KBI’s update.
The agency said their investigation is ongoing, and once it’s complete, the case will be handed over to the Leavenworth County Attorney’s Office for potential charges.
If you would like to help Charles and her family as she buries her son this Friday on what would have been his 30th birthday, you can call the JW Jones Funeral Home in Kansas City, Kansas, and make the donation in his name, Darionce Charles-Lott.
