A Kansas City, Kansas, man has pleaded guilty to murder for a January 2023 police chase that started with a knifepoint carjacking and ended with two people dead after a stolen SUV slammed into their car on Independence Avenue. Charles Matthews, 34, entered the plea to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of resisting on Oct. 1 in Jackson County Circuit Court, and was sentenced to 10 years on each murder count and four years for resisting, with all three sentences running concurrently.
According to FOX4KC.com, Matthews will serve his time in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The station reports he told detectives he had not slept in five days and did not remember the crash or specific details of the chase itself. Court documents cited by the station say Matthews drove away in the SUV and led Kansas City, Kansas, police on the pursuit that would end two lives.
A Carjacking That Turned Into a Deadly Chase
The chain of events began on Jan. 7, 2023, when Kansas City, Kansas, police started investigating an armed carjacking in the 400 block of North 18th Street, as reported by kansascity.com. Police said Matthews approached a 13-year-old boy with a knife and told him to get back after the boy had started his uncle’s GMC Terrain on the street. Matthews then fled in the stolen SUV with officers in pursuit.
The chase crossed into Kansas City, Missouri, around 2 a.m. on Interstate 70 at Broadway, the outlet’s earlier reporting states. Investigators said Matthews exited the highway and sped through traffic signals on Independence Avenue, at one point reaching 100 miles per hour. According to charging documents referenced in that report, Matthews allegedly said he crossed into Missouri because he thought officers would stop chasing him.
Two Lives Lost at Independence and Hardesty
The stolen SUV sped through a red light at Independence Avenue and Hardesty before crashing into another car, killing two people. Juan Avila, 26, was pronounced dead at the crash site, kansascity.com reported at the time. Gabriela Trejo-Garcia, 44, was taken to the hospital and died two days later from her injuries…