True Crime
A Jackson County jury convicted Fredrick Scott of four trail murders.
On Tuesday, Sept. 22, a Jackson County, Missouri jury convicted Fredrick Scott, 31, of four first-degree murder counts and armed criminal action in the Indian Creek trails case, and acquitted him on two counts. Sentencing is still ahead.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Jury guilty verdicts are findings of guilt. They are not a sentence, and sentencing is still ahead. On Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, a Jackson County, Missouri jury found Fredrick Scott, 31, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in deaths along south Kansas City walking trails in the Indian Creek area, between 2016 and his 2017 arrest, and acquitted him on two other first-degree murder and armed criminal action counts. Prosecutors will seek life without parole on each first-degree murder conviction, and that ask is not a sentence.
The broader case named six people: John Palmer, Mike Darby, Karen Harmeyer, Steven Gibbons, David Lenox, and Timothy Rice. He was convicted on four of the six killings charged. The reporting used here does not list them that way. An acquittal on the other two counts is a finding of not guilty on those counts. It does not become a sentence on the four.
The trial began Sept. 3 and ran about three weeks, with more than 70 witnesses. Coverage of the verdict ran from Sept. 22 into Sept. 23, 2026. Sentencing is later. Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson's office will seek life without parole on each first-degree murder conviction. A request is not a term imposed. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Tuscaloosa police charged Daronte Collins with felony murder after a Saturday apartment-complex shooting.
WBRC's jail photo is captioned Daronte Collins and puts both men at 22. The Tuscaloosa Thread, citing Violent Crimes Unit Lt. Michael Hall, spells the charged man Deronte and puts both at 20. Patch and the Calhoun Journal also use Daronte and 20. A felony-murder count, which the Thread and the Journal describe as Alabama's rule when someone dies during a robbery, is not a finding that Collins fired the shot that killed Tyson. The Thread says the 25-year-old has not been charged.
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Reporting noted by WBRC, Tuscaloosa Thread, Calhoun Journal, and Tuscaloosa Patch.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
High Point police charged Kymberli Bowden with first-degree murder in her 13-year-old daughter's death.
The Oct. 8 release is a new murder count on a case the department charged in 2025 as felony child abuse and concealment of death. It is not a trial. The murder-charge release says she remains in jail with no bond. WXII reported a violent-offense hold and a $1 million bond on the older counts. The 2025 release listed her age as 44. The murder-charge release, WXII, and FOX 35 Orlando list 45.
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Reporting noted by High Point Police Department, WXII, FOX 35 Orlando, and News & Observer.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
Chicago police charged Chevazz Campbell in the stabbing death of CTA janitor Julian Mobley.
A detention hearing is the first court date. It is not a finding that Campbell stabbed anyone. The department's Sunday release says he robbed and fatally stabbed a 41-year-old man in the 2000 block of West Lake Street. ABC7 and CBS Chicago name that man as Julian Mobley and describe a fare dispute that turned into a stabbing. The department's charge list and CBS Chicago's shorter summary do not match count for count.
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Reporting noted by Chicago Police Department, ABC7 Chicago, and CBS Chicago.