KANSAS CITY —A judge on Thursday sentenced a Kansas City man for an August 2020 double homicide to Life In Prison Without Parole plus 65 years, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
Cleon D. White, 36, was convicted in January of two counts of Murder in the 1st Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and two counts of Armed Criminal Action.
On Thursday, the judge sentenced White to Life Without Parole for each 1st Degree Murder conviction plus 25 years on each Armed Criminal Action convictions and 15 years on the Unlawful Use of a Weapon conviction. Those sentences were set to run consecutively to Life Without Parole.
According to court records, Kansas City police officers were dispatched to the area of the 2700 block of Guinotte Avenue in Kansas City on a reported shooting. Officers found two deceased men in a gold Honda.
The victims were identified as 23-year-0ld Jahmiere Green and 27-year-old Brandon Rainey.
Video surveillance showed the victim's vehicle being followed by a white SUV on Guinottte Avenue. The SUV pulls up to the driver's side of the victims' vehicle, then the victims' vehicle rolls slowly to a stop. No movement is obvious after the SUV leaves.
The SUV does return but leaves again. Detectives also determined the SUV returns to a parking lot on East Third Street soon after the murder and the man who gets out of the SUV matches the build and clothing of a man shown meeting with one of the victims shortly before the homicide.
After a search warrant was obtained, detectives determined a search of the defendant's phone showed a vehicle with wording on the windshield that can be seen in surveillance video of the vehicle on the day of the fatal shootings.