Jury convicts men in Kansas City drug-trafficking, murder conspiracy: Prosecutors
A federal jury in Kansas City returned guilty verdicts Monday for two men accused of drug-trafficking and premeditated murder, including the October 2015 killing of a government witness.
Shawn “Deuce” Burkhalter, 34, and Joshua “T” Nesbitt, 29, stood through a 21-day trial in a long-running federal case that came to a close in the Western District of Missouri. Among the findings of the jury were guilty convictions on two counts of murder, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and violent crimes related to the illegal use of firearms.
Federal prosecutors announced the verdict Monday, saying Burkhalter and Nesbitt face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The verdict comes after prosecutors alleged at trial that Burkhalter, of Kansas City, and Nesbitt, of Mississippi, were involved in the drug trade starting in 2008 until February 2018.
Both fatally shot Danny Lamont Dean with an AR-15 while robbing him of cocaine in September 2015, the jury found. They were also convicted in the Oct. 4, 2015, killing of Anthony Dwayne Johnson, which prosecutors alleged was carried out by Nesbitt on Burkhalter’s orders.
The killing of Johnson was a deliberate act, prosecutors said, that was meant to prevent him from testifying before a federal grand jury or speaking to law enforcement.
Other crimes they were found guilty of included witness tampering and the robbery of a Kansas City business in September 2015.
Prosecutors say six other co-defendants have pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the criminal conspiracy. All await sentencing.
Burkhalter and Nesbitt likewise have yet to be sentenced. Prosecutors said a date would be set following the completion of an investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
