Missouri man receives consecutive life sentences in 2018 fatal stabbing near Kansas City
A Jackson County Judge on Friday sentenced a Pleasant Hill man — convicted in the 2018 murder of a Missouri National Guard member — to consecutive life sentences.
Nicholas Webb, 61, was found guilty of second degree murder and criminal action by a Jackson County jury in August. Webb will serve a life sentence in prison for each charge, consecutively, according to a release from the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Webb was convicted of killing 23-year-old Cody Harter, a Missouri National Guard member, who he stabbed to death in May 2018.
The killing stemmed from a dispute over merging lanes on Interstate 470 in Lee’s Summit. Webb and Harter were both driving northbound on Missouri 291 toward a merge, according to court documents.
Webb was previously convicted in a separate case of second-degree murder in 1981. He had been released from prison less than a year before he was accused of stabbing Harter during a disagreement on the highway.
Lee’s Summit officers were dispatched to Interstate 470 in the area of Colbern Road after receiving calls of a man lying on the ground.
Surveillance video and witness testimony helped police identify Webb as the suspect. Court records showed that while in custody, Webb said he got out of his vehicle and exchanged words with the driver of a truck.
Webb allegedly told police while in custody that he and another driver had stopped over confusion about a merging lane. Webb said the other driver did not seem mad, according to court documents.
A witness told police he saw a man matching Webb’s description take a swing at another man, according to court documents
After further investigation, police found Webb had been arrested in Liberty on the same day as the apparent homicide. He had a knife in his pocket during the Liberty arrest.
In the aftermath of his death, family described Harter as kindhearted and generous. He was a loadmaster with the Missouri Air National Guard who did a tour in Iraq, his mother Kerrie Harter, previously told The Star.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch, Glenn E. Rice and Robert A. Cronkleton contributed to this report.
