A prosecutor told a judge Wednesday that they plan to seek the death penalty for Larry Acree, the man accused of fatally shooting an Independence police officer and a Jackson County court employee during an eviction.
During a brief hearing Wednesday afternoon, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Baldwin told the presiding judge that the district attorney planned to seek the death penalty.
Acree’s attorney, Edward Berrigan of the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office, asked for a delay so the public defenders who handle such cases could be reassigned.
A grand jury has indicted Acree on 18 felony counts in connection with the Feb. 29 shooting deaths of Independence Police Officer Cody Allen and Jackson County Civil Process Officer Drexel Mack. Two other Independence officers were also injured in the shooting.
Platte County Judge Megan B. Benton, who was to preside over the case, scheduled Acree to appear in court at the Jackson County Courthouse in Independence on July 10 at 1:30 p.m.
Prosecutors in the Kansas City area have rarely sought the death penalty in recent years. In March 2023, Clay County prosecutors filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case against Joshua Rocha. He was charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 shooting of North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez and is scheduled to appear in court in September 2025.
Eleven people are on death row in Missouri. According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, those convictions came from Butler, Camden, Carter, Cole, Green, Jefferson, Phelps, St. Charles and St. Louis counties.
One man is executed on June 11.
The state has increased its use of the death penalty, executing four people last year and a man last month.
This is a current news story and will be updated with more information.
