KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man who killed the mother of his child was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for her kidnapping and murder, and for shooting another man.
An Alford plea agreement with Jean Felix, 44, resulted in his convictions in Jackson County Court for second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault, according to a news release from the Jackson County Prosecutor's Office.
"This case is a painful reminder that intimate partner violence too often ends in tragedy, and the warning signs need to be taken seriously long before a life is lost,” Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson stated in the news release from her office. “I am grateful to our team and the Kansas City Police Department for their commitment to securing justice for the victim and her family. We will continue standing with survivors, honor those we’ve lost, and hold abusers accountable.”
Officers were sent about 9 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2023, to a reported shooting at an apartment in the 8200 block of Forest Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. They found a man with a gunshot wound and he was taken to a hospital.
While the officers were at the shooting scene, they learned a woman had been kidnapped from the apartment building.
Less than an hour later, police found the murder victim, Ronnisha Danner, 40, dead from gunshot wounds near East 65th Street and the Paseo, according to the court document.
Ring camera video from a nearby residence showed a vehicle at the East 65th Street and the Paseo location that appeared to be the same car that left the earlier shooting scene.
A family member told police that night the suspect, Felix, had been stalking her and her mother, Ronnisha Danner, the court document states.
Felix came to the apartment building, banged on a window and Danner's daughter and her boyfriend asked Felix to leave.
There was a second man hiding in nearby bushes.
The woman and her boyfriend started to go back into the building when surveillance video shows Felix take a gun out of a backpack.
At least one gunshot hit the man in the torso, but he survived the wound.
Felix pulled Danner from the building and dragged her to a car. The man who had been hiding in the bushes got in the driver's seat while Felix and Danner sat in the backseat, according to the court document.
An FBI agent helping the KCMO Police Department's Career Criminal Unit with the case spotted the suspect's car in the parking lot of a Kansas City, Kansas, apartment parking lot.
There were three spent bullet casings found in the backseat of the car, along with blood.
A relative told police it was believed Felix and Danner had a 4-year-old child.
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