KANSAS CITY —A Jackson County judge on Friday convicted two Kansas City defendants of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges in connection with a gun battle on a January afternoon this year inside Crown Center, according to Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker.
The judge convicted Brian Favela, 23, and Joel Olivas, 24, identified by prosecutors as East Side gang members of two counts of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Class B felonies, and two counts of Armed Criminal Action, as well as three misdemeanor counts of Harassment in the 2nd Degree. The judge dismissed one count of Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Armed Criminal Action finding not enough evidence was shown to overcome Missouri's self-defense laws on those two counts.
"The verdict points to a level of accountability that this office will seek for individuals who engage in this kind of insidious conduct, even when the defendants are armored with Missouri's very generous self-defense laws," Baker stated. "We will take every step possible to hold offenders accountable for their own criminal behavior. I'm grateful for this trial team who worked so hard and so quickly to get these offenders to trial. And I am so grateful for the management team at Crown Center and Hallmark and the KCPD, who helped in every possible way to get today's verdict."
Jackson County prosecutors Dion Sankar, Kristiane Bryant and Devon Tarantino prosecuted the case on behalf of the state of Missouri.
The judge set a sentencing hearing for Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.