A man once charged with murder in the deadly shooting outside Union Station during the Kansas City Chiefs' 2024 Super Bowl celebration is back in custody — this time on federal weapons charges after police pulled him over in July and found two handguns rigged with illegal machine gun conversion devices. Dominic Miller was driving a tan Chevrolet Malibu north on Prospect Avenue toward Martin Luther King Boulevard when Kansas City police stopped him on July 24, according to a newly unsealed federal complaint.
The complaint, unsealed Tuesday and filed September 5, charges Miller with being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a machine gun, as reported by The Kansas City Star. Police say they found a black Glock 19 under the front passenger seat fitted with a machine gun conversion device, and a second gun, a Glock 17, also under the front passenger seat with a similar device attached. Miller denied knowing about the firearms, per the same account, and requested a lawyer. Miller and a passenger were both arrested during the stop.
A Vehicle Stop That Unraveled Quickly
The car's license plate was registered to a 2003 Ford truck, not the Malibu Miller was driving, and Miller said he had just bought the vehicle and had not yet registered it, the Star's report notes. A computer check also revealed an outstanding full extradition felony warrant out of Sedgwick County, Kansas, for fleeing or attempting to elude, and he faced a Kansas City municipal charge of improper display or possession of another vehicle's plates. Federal prosecutors filed a motion for detention on September 5, arguing that no conditions would assure community safety or Miller's appearance in court, according to the same complaint.
Under federal law, a machine gun conversion device — commonly called a Glock switch — is legally defined as a machine gun in its own right, regardless of whether it was ever attached to a firearm or fired, according to the Spodek Law Group. That classification carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison per count. If convicted, Miller could face up to 25 years in prison, multiple years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine, per the Star's reporting. As of Tuesday, no court dates had been set in his federal case.
How Murder Charges Fell Apart in State Court
Miller was one of several people charged in connection with the February 2024 shooting near Union Station that killed 43-year-old Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and host of the “Taste of Tejano” program on community radio station KKFI, according to KCUR. The rally shooting also wounded roughly two dozen people by gunfire, including several children, amid an estimated 1 million people gathered for the celebration. Court records unsealed during the investigation showed at least six people opened fire and 12 brandished firearms, including at least two AR-style rifles.
Miller had originally faced second-degree felony murder, unlawful use of a weapon, and two counts of armed criminal action. But in March, Jackson County Prosecutor Melesa Johnson said Missouri's 2016 stand-your-ground self-defense law forced her office to drop the murder charge because the state could not disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that Miller acted in self-defense during the chaotic exchange of gunfire. Miller was tackled by a witness while possessing a handgun. Miller was shot and hospitalized. DNA results strongly suggested Miller was part of a three-person mixture recovered from a gun trigger swab.
Miller ultimately pleaded guilty in March to one count of unlawful use of a weapon in Jackson County Circuit Court and was sentenced to two years, receiving 753 days of credit for time already served and spending roughly four hours in state custody as part of the plea deal.
A Pattern Repeats With Co-Defendants
Miller's case was not unique. Co-defendant Terry Young, 21, also initially charged with second-degree murder, received a similar deal in April involving a weapons charge, the outlet reported. Lyndell Mays, accused of initiating the initial argument and drawing his firearm first, still faces the more serious charges: Johnson announced in August that a grand jury had returned a superseding indictment against Mays retaining second-degree murder while adding seven counts of second-degree assault and seven counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child, with trial scheduled for March 2027.
A 15-year-old identified in court records as R.G., who admitted to shooting toward Mays and wounding Miller during the rally, was committed to a state youth facility in July 2024 after pleading guilty in family court to unlawful use of a weapon, avoiding certification to adult court, according to the Associated Press.
The Statute Behind the Dropped Charges
Missouri's self-defense law has become a recurring obstacle for Jackson County prosecutors well beyond the rally shooting. In an August address to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, Johnson reported that her office had been forced to decline prosecution in 46 cases in 2026 alone because of the statute — a figure Hoodline previously reported as part of the broader fallout from the law.
Federal prosecution faces no such barrier. Because federal statute defines a conversion switch as a machine gun independent of intent or use, Miller's new charges sidestep the self-defense questions that unraveled the state's murder case. The proliferation of these devices is not confined to Kansas City: an ATF report released in January 2025 found federal law enforcement recovered and traced more than 11,000 machine gun conversion devices between 2019 and 2023, a 784 percent increase over the prior five-year period, according to Everytown Research & Policy. As of Tuesday, an attorney for Miller was not yet listed in court records.
