KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Jackson County Court in the February 2022 murders of a man and woman in east Kansas City, Missouri.
David Emerson, 30, shot and killed Jermaine Jackson, 36 and 32-year-old Ashley Pettiford in a car found in a parking lot at Linwood Boulevard and Agnes Avenue.
Emerson entered guilty pleas to two counts of second degree murder and one count of assault.
Police also found a five-year-old child in the backseat suffering from a gunshot wound to an eye, according to a court document.
KSHB 41 talked with Carolyn Pettiford-Sanders about her daughter's death not long after the murders occurred.
"Someone chose to take my daughter's life," Pettiford-Sanders said. "It's not like she was ill or anything. Like that they chose to murder my daughter."
The loss of her daughter crushed Pettiford-Sanders
"And now I won't be able to hear her voice, I won't be able to talk to her,I won't be able to hug her, she won't be able to tell me how her son was doing in school," Pettiford-Sanders told KSHB 41. "Its hard to put it words," she said. It's like a numb feeling; it's like your heart is broke into pieces. I'm numb."
Emerson faces 22 years in prison.
He will be sentenced at 1 p.m. on Oct. 10.
—
