After pleading guilty to three charges, including murder, a Kansas City man faces a potential of 30 years in prison for the fatal stabbing two years ago of a Merriam man.
On Tuesday in Johnson County District Court, John Daniel Crawford Murry, 27, entered guilty pleas for second-degree intentional murder, along with aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary, for his role in the stabbing death of 23-year-old Charles Dillon.
The pleas comes as part of an agreement from both sides that has Murry facing a potential 371 months, or more than 30 years, in prison.
A second person involved with the murder, Devin Braswell, was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison last year.
Murry was involved in a burglary turned into a murder
On Oct. 21, 2022, police responded to a call of a stabbing at the King’s Cove Apartments, 7334 Royalty Way, in Merriam. Upon arrival, officers found Dillon with stab wounds and later pronounced him dead at the scene.
Murry and Braswell made their way into Dillon’s apartment without forcing their entry and stabbed him multiple times, according to court documents. They gained access to Dillon’s apartment through an unlocked sliding glass door, said Lannie Ornburn, assistant district attorney for the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office.
“It was common for (Dillon) to leave a sliding glass door open for his cat to go in and out of the apartment,” Orburn said. “Mr. Murry knew this. He’d been staying on the couch of Mr. Braswell for a few months and one of their plans was to to go in and burglarize and rob Mr. Dillon of some of his property.”
Dillon’s family said he was able to call 911 and claimed not to know who attacked him, according to a previous report by the Johnson County Post.
Murry’s attorney, Jessica Sokoloff, did not return a request for comment for this story.
The family is satisfied with the pleas
Working with Dillon’s family, Ornburn said they’re sickened by his loss.
“We feel very sad about what happened to Mr. Dillon,” he said. “He was definitely an innocent person in this and two individuals that were looking to burglarize and rob him ultimately took his life.”
They also were satisfied with the plea agreement, Orburn added.
“They were in agreement … and understood that the lead investigators in the Merriam PD were in support of the resolution to this,” Ornburn said. “This is a resolution that everybody felt good about.”
What happens next
During the stabbing, Murry was on probation for a suspended 10-year sentence for his involvement in a shooting in Unionville, Missouri, in 2019.
Because the stabbing is a violation of that probation, it is expected that he will also be serving time for the previous sentence, Ornburn said.
“This sentence will run consecutive to that,” he said.
Murry is scheduled to be sentenced in Johnson County District Court on Aug. 9.
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