News

Feb 15, 2017 KMBC 9 News by Michael Mahoney

A man convicted of setting the fire that led to one of Kansas City's biggest and most deadly explosions wants his prison sentence overturned.

Wednesday in court Bryan Sheppard got the chance to tell a judge why he should be released.

Sheppard is one of five people convicted of setting a shed of explosives on fire at a construction site near 87th Street and U.S. Highway 71 back in 1988. The massive blast that resulted killed six firefighters answering the call.

That fire was so intense you could hardly recognize the destroyed fire rigs.

Feb 14, 2017 Fox 4 News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It’s been more than 28 years since six firefighters were killed in one of the worst explosions ever to rock Kansas City. Wednesday, for the first time, one of the people convicted of their murders could walk out of a courtroom a free man.

A 2012 Supreme Court ruling says juveniles can’t be given life sentences without the possibility of parole without taking certain factors into account. Bryan Sheppard's family maintains he’s innocent, but that’s why they worry he’ll remain in prison.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - 2/15/2017 KSHB 41

A judge is expected to rule on Bryan Shepard's sentencing on March 3.

A man convicted of killing six Kansas City firefighters in an explosion over two decades ago is asking to be set free after being sentenced to life in prison without parole.

This podcast is from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which co-produces the “Reveal” radio show and podcast with PRX. “Reveal” features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. For “Trial by Fire,” CIR relied on decades of reporting from Flatland’s Special Projects Reporter Mike McGraw, who first covered the story for The Kansas City Star.

By Julia B. Chan | Reveal Feb. 4, 2017

By Matt Campbell Kansas City Star Jan. 22, 2017

Patrick W. Peters, a former Jackson County assistant prosecutor who later found success at the defense table, died Saturday from a disease, cryptococcal meningitis, that is said to be rare in healthy people. He was 62.

His wife and law partner, Shelley Peters, said Peters had been battling the illness since early November after he traveled to Arizona to conduct depositions for a case.

“With most people, apparently our immune system would fight it and kill it,” Shelley Peters said. “They do not know why his did not, but it didn’t.”

Peters was hospitalized Nov. 13 “and it just went from bad to worse,” she said.

Peters was well-respected by prosecutors as well as defense attorneys.

“Pat was a warrior in the courtroom, known for fighting for his clients,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker tweeted on Monday.

By Mike McGraw Flatland KC Jan. 6, 2017

For the first time in nearly 20 years, details of one of the city’s most enduring tragedies are about to play out once again in a Kansas City courtroom.

Bryan Sheppard, one of five defendants convicted in the 1988 arson deaths of six Kansas City firefighters, will be asking a federal judge next month for his immediate release from a life sentence that came with no possibility of parole.