By Amanda Musa, CNN
(CNN) — Two Missouri men already facing charges in the mysterious case of three friends found dead outside a Kansas City home after watching a Chiefs football game last year could have some charges upgraded to include three counts of second degree murder, court documents show.
Clayton McGeeney, 36, Ricky Johnson, 38, and David Harrington, 37, were discovered outside of Jordan Willis’ Platte County home, north of Kansas City, around 10 p.m. on January 9, 2024, two days after the men watched the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers.
All three men died of fentanyl and cocaine combined toxicity, a doctor with Forensic Medical of Kansas determined in March, according to Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd.
Willis and Ivory J. Carson were both charged with a single count of delivery of a controlled substance and three counts of involuntary manslaughter for “recklessly causing the deaths” of the three men, Zahnd said at the time.
Both men entered not guilty pleas to the initial charges, an online court docket shows.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to upgrade the three involuntary manslaughter charges to murder in the second degree, according to an amended complaint. The judge can either approve the request for upgraded charges or deny it.
Each charge is a class A felony and carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison or life imprisonment, according to the complaint.
“While not unexpected, we are greatly disappointed in the upgraded charges. Jordan has maintained his innocence since day one and he declined the Government’s plea offer,” Willis’ attorney, John Picerno, said in a statement Sunday.
“Missouri’s Felony Murder Statute is overly broad, often misused, and excessive,” Picerno said. “It should never be used in this manner. We are very much looking forward [to] challenging these charges in open court before a fair and impartial jury.”
An attorney for Carson did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment Monday.
CNN has reached out to the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for more information regarding the decision to upgrade the codefendants’ charges.
A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Thursday, July 24 at 9 a.m., an online court docket shows.
Powdery substances and a suspect’s DNA
After the bodies were found, detectives searching Willis’ home found two “plastic bags containing white powdery substances,” one of which tests showed contained cocaine, according to Zahnd. A probable cause statement alleges Willis “was determined to be the major contributor of DNA found on that bag.”
The other bag contained fentanyl, with Carson’s DNA found to be the primary contributor on that bag, Zahnd continued, citing a probable cause statement from February 2024.
That document also recounts a statement from a witness who told police they were at Harrington’s home the night of the football game and saw “a large plate of cocaine allegedly supplied by Mr. Willis that everyone was using,” Zahnd said.
Another witness who left before midnight said he was with Willis, Harrington, McGeeney and Johnson at Willis’ home later on in the evening where they drank alcohol, smoked marijuana and used cocaine, according to the probable cause statement.
There is no evidence that Willis bought the drugs that his friends ingested before their deaths, according to Picerno, who previously spoke to the Associated Press. He also said that the group had been partying all day, AP reported.
Kansas City had a high of 37 degrees and a low of 29 degrees with trace amounts of rain and snow on January 7, and temperatures dropped to right around freezing just before sunrise the next morning.
McGeeney’s fiancée also told police the three had gone to Willis’ home the day of the Kansas City Chiefs football game on January 7, the last game of the regular season. But the three friends never came home.
Two days later, McGeeney’s fiancée went looking for him at Willis’ house and found “at least one person dead on the back patio,” Zahnd said in March.
Eventually, she called the Kansas City police. According to a police statement, officers “responded to the back porch and confirmed there was a dead body. Upon further investigation, officers located two other dead bodies in the back yard.”
Police said at the time they found “no obvious signs of foul play.”
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