A Kansas City man has been sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend's fiancé after a confrontation outside a Lee's Summit home led to Scott being forced inside, where he was shot, nearly two years ago. Keith J. Marshall entered guilty pleas to voluntary manslaughter, first-degree burglary and unlawful use of a weapon in the November 22, 2024, shooting death of Craig L. Scott.
The Kansas City Star reported that Marshall pleaded guilty in Jackson County Circuit Court, where Judge Cory L. Atkins imposed the sentences. FOX4 reported concurrent terms of 15 years for manslaughter, 15 years for burglary and 22 years for unlawful use of a weapon, for a total of 22 years, according to fox4kc.com. As part of the plea agreement, two counts of armed criminal action were dismissed and Marshall's original charge of second-degree murder was amended down to the lesser homicide count.
The case stemmed from a custody dispute between Marshall and his ex-girlfriend over their two children, according to court documents cited by the Kansas City Star. Scott, 51, was the fiancé of Marshall's ex-girlfriend, and prosecutors alleged that Marshall and another person arrived at the woman's home in the 2100 block of Southwest Rutherford Drive at about 8:05 a.m. on the morning of the shooting.
A Confrontation That Turned Violent at the Front Door
Per prosecutors, Scott confronted Marshall and the second man outside the home and was assaulted during that confrontation. As Scott reached the front door, the two men forced him into the house, prosecutors alleged, and the same report notes a witness reported hearing a single gunshot soon after.
Investigators later found that Scott had been shot once in the head, and he died at the scene. An autopsy confirmed the single gunshot wound as the cause of death, the fox4kc.com report states. Court records reviewed by the station describe how the two men attacked Scott and assaulted him in the front yard before Marshall and the other man pushed him through the doorway and shot him.
Flight, a Search Warrant, and a Surrender
After the shooting, Marshall and the other man fled the property in a Toyota Camry, per the account relayed by kshb.com. A search warrant executed on the Camry turned up an empty handgun holster and brass knuckles, the station reported.
Marshall turned himself in to Lee's Summit police with an attorney several hours after the shooting, after police had reached out to his parents. Prosecutors charged him the day after Scott's death. Court documents reviewed by the same station described multiple disagreements that had arisen in the weeks before the shooting between Marshall and his ex-girlfriend concerning their two children.
A Discrepancy Over Marshall's Age
Reporting on Marshall's age differs between outlets. KSHB identified him as 31 at the time he was charged, while the Kansas City Star's reporting describes him as a 33-year-old Kansas City man.
With the plea entered and sentence imposed, the case closes out nearly two years after the shooting first brought Lee's Summit police to the Rutherford Drive home where Scott was found dead. Marshall's sentences, court documents say, will run concurrently, totaling the 22 years handed down by Judge Atkins.
