Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Michelle Davidson has decided not to file criminal charges against sheriff's deputies involved in the death of Marcus Caldwell, a 36-year-old Kansas City, Kansas man who stopped breathing after a physical struggle during his arrest southwest of Rushville in May. The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office released a final update on the investigation this week, closing out a case that began with a domestic disturbance call and ended with Caldwell's death at a St. Joseph hospital.
According to KQ2, deputies were called the morning of May 28 to the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and Missouri Route 45, a rural stretch southwest of Rushville, a village of roughly 225 people near the Missouri River floodplain and the Kansas border, according to the Missouri Secretary of State. Dispatchers had received reports of a rolling domestic disturbance between Caldwell and his mother, with a woman telling dispatchers she feared for her life and using the word “kidnapping,” per the seed reporting from MSC News.
When deputies attempted to arrest Caldwell, he allegedly punched a deputy in the face and grabbed at a deputy's holstered firearm while fighting officers, KQ2's report detailed. Deputies eventually handcuffed him. Once restrained, deputies sat Caldwell upright and poured water on his neck in an effort to cool him down, but he then suffered a medical emergency and stopped breathing, prompting deputies and Buchanan County EMS to begin CPR at the scene, with life-support measures continuing until he reached the hospital, KQ2 reported.
Hospital Pronouncement and Prosecutor's Review
Caldwell was taken to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph, a 358-bed non-profit hospital and Level II Trauma Center that serves as the sole tertiary medical facility between Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska, according to a Wikipedia entry on the facility. He was pronounced dead there.
In her formal declination statement issued Tuesday, Davidson said officers' physical force conformed to Missouri's statutory definitions of reasonable force, leaving insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent or unlawful conduct beyond a reasonable doubt, per the same KQ2 account. Her office reviewed body-worn camera footage, witness statements, and forensic autopsy reports before closing the case, the station's report noted.
The Legal Standard Behind the Decision
Davidson's decision rests on Section 563.046 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, which authorizes law enforcement officers to use physical force during an arrest when their actions are objectively reasonable given the totality of circumstances they face, according to the NGK Law Firm. That standard weighs the perceived immediate threat to officers against the level of resistance from the person being arrested, rather than judging the outcome after the fact.
A prosecutor's review under that framework asks only whether criminal charges can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt — a distinct legal threshold from internal departmental policy compliance or civil liability standards, per the same KQ2 account. The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office, led by elected Sheriff Bill Puett, oversees rural policing across the county's townships outside St. Joseph city limits.
Davidson's Background and Local Standing
Davidson was elected Buchanan County's chief prosecutor in November 2022 after previously serving as a district public defender and assistant county prosecutor, according to The Missouri Times. She ran on a platform emphasizing courtroom experience and close coordination with local law enforcement. This year, she won her party's nomination uncontested in the August Republican primary with 7,340 votes, per the Buchanan County Clerk's election results.
This is not the first time Davidson's office has cleared local officers in a fatal encounter. In April 2025, the prosecuting attorney's office similarly declined to file charges against law enforcement following a fatal officer-involved shooting in St. Joseph, after an independent investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, according to the St. Joseph Post.
With the criminal review now closed, the Buchanan County Sheriff's Office has treated the matter as resolved from a prosecutorial standpoint. Caldwell's death adds to a string of law enforcement matters that have drawn scrutiny in Buchanan County this year, including an officer fired on near Heritage Sports Complex in August.
