KANSAS CITY, Mo. — After a two-day trial, a Platte County jury found a man guilty of murdering his former co-worker in 2021.
Daniel Kelati, 55, was found guilty of second-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Police were called around 12:30 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2021, to the QuikTrip in Riverside on a shooting.
When officers arrived, they found Tariku Fite lying near a gas pump, suffering from gunshot trauma.
“This defendant murdered his former co-worker and friend Tariku Fite at the Quik Trip in Riverside as Mr. Fite was beginning to pump gas into his vehicle," Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said in a news release. "Kelati shot him in the head at close range. The murder was captured on security video.”
Kelati told police he shot Fite because he had been following him.
However, prosecutors were able to prove through multiple surveillance videos that it was the other way around — Kelati had been following Fite.
Kelati had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, according to the prosecutor's office.
He remains in the Platte County Jail and is set to be sentenced at the end of the month.
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