Former prosecutor breaks down county’s decision to pursue death penalty against Larry Acree

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Jackson County prosecutors will pursue the death penalty against Larry Acree.

Acree is charged with the murders of Independence police officer Cody Allen and Jackson County process server Drexel Mack. Allen and Mack were serving Acree an eviction notice at his house in late February when they were both shot and killed.

Larry Acree now faces 18 felony charges for fatal and non-fatal shootings.

Phil LeVota, a former prosecutor in Jackson County, told KCTV5 that not all cases can be tried as death penalty cases, but Acree’s rises to that level.

“It should have been filed as a death penalty case,” LeVota said on Wednesday when asked about the county’s decision.

However, LeVota said it’s not common to pursue the death penalty in Missouri.

“It’s rare because it’s hard,” he said. “It’s very hard to get 12 jurors to convict someone of murder, to agree unanimously, but to also have them agree to put that person to death. It’s a whole different ball game than finding them guilty.”

The 70-year-old Acree is charged with nearly 20 felony counts, but the two biggest are for murder.

“Charging someone with the death penalty is a big step for the prosecutor,” LeVota said. “It’s always good as a prosecutor to overcharge because you can always dismiss counts, but you want to charge everything you can to have the full arsenal with you when you are going against a bad guy, a criminal defendant like this.”

The decision to go for the death penalty was made by Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters-Baker, who is not seeking re-election.

“[The case] is going to be handed off to the next prosecutor who may or may not have made the decision to pursue the death penalty case, but they are going to have it in their lap,” LeVota said. “Good, bad, or indifferent, it’s being charged as a death penalty case and the new prosecutor is going to have to deal with it.”

Timewise, LeVota says it will be several years before the case goes to trial.

“What I always caution everybody – let the wheels of justice grind slowly as they do,” LeVota said. “Everyone wants a quick resolution to it, and in a death penalty case it won’t come as quick as we want it to, but this is a good first step that it has been charged as a death penalty case.”

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