This has potential for a trial, so I thought I'd start keeping tabs on how homicide cases really work in Jackson County. Howard Stephenson is charged with two counts Murder First Degree and two counts Armed Criminal Action.
Howard "Ray" Stephenson is a mid-40s black male married almost 25 years to Michelle, and they have 4 kids: Marcus, Rachel, Cody and Colby. (An interesting side note is that Ray's brother Donald is offensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs.)
On April 29, 2013, Michelle was driving Ray and the kids back from the barber shop, and as they drove down Blue Parkway, Jaron Syrus and Qwentelia VanZant (with their two young kids, Jaron and Honesty) pulled up and started yelling at the Stephensons. It was decided to pull into Discount Smokes and "squash" the argument.
Just a few minutes after pulling in, Jaron and Qwentelia are dead.
It looks like self-defense/defense-of-others to me. Original prosecutor talked about one count of voluntary manslaughter, new prosecutor is taking tougher stance.
Everything at Discount Smokes is captured on two surveillance cameras, without sound. The argument/fight takes place pretty far from the cameras, so it's not real clear. The State sent the video to some expert, but when the two cameras play side-by-side, they get out of synch. I'm requesting a continuance of the November 10, 2014 trial date to see if the video can be improved. Prosecutors have no objection to continuance, since a better video would be helpful.
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