For Immediate Release:
Dec. 14, 2018
Junius Morrow, dob 11/08/1988, faces eight felony counts including Murder in the 2nd Degree in the killing of Anthony Page, two counts of the Class E Felony Unlawful Use of a Weapon, two counts of Armed Criminal Action, one count of the Class E Felony Domestic Assault in the 3rd Degree, one count of the Class B Felony Kidnapping in the First Degree, and the Class D Felony of Unlawful Possession of a Firearm, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.*
According to court records, on 12/10/18, KCPD officers were dispatched to a residence in response to calls for service regarding a shooting. Upon arrival, officers discovered the victim, Anthony Page, deceased inside the residence. While on scene, several witnesses stated they were inside the residence when the homicide occurred. Witnesses stated that they were standing just inside the front door prior to the shooting when there was a knock at the door. The victim asked who was there and when no one answered, he opened the door. Witnesses stated the defendant then pointed a handgun at the victim and fired the weapon several times. After killing the victim, witnesses said the defendant fled the area.
An additional witness stated he was inside his residence when he heard approximately four gunshots. When the witness looked outside he observed a heavy-set black male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans firing a handgun with an extended magazine into the victim's residence. The witness stated the suspect fired roughly six or seven rounds total and fled the area south-bound to a dark Chevrolet Avalanche truck. The defendant entered the truck on the rear passenger side, according to the witness, and the truck fled southbound.
After interviews with friends and family of the victim, the reporting detective learned the victim was in conflict with an individual known as "Fat Boy." Associates of the victim stated "Fat Boy" had stolen the victim's car in the weeks prior and, in the process, stole one of the victim's firearms. The victim filed a police report with KCPD and listed "Fat Boy" as the suspect in the auto theft. Victim's live-in girlfriend stated that two days before the homicide, "Fat Boy" had come to her house and spoke with her daughter - while attempting to talk his way into the residence without success. "Fat Boy" was then identified through police reports and interviews as Junius Morrow.
On 12/11/18 KCPD detectives learned defendant was identified as a suspect in an Aggravated Domestic Assault and Kidnapping involving his girlfriend and her daughter. Officers learned that in the course of that domestic assault, defendant produced a handgun similar in appearance to the one described by witnesses to the homicide of Anthony Page. Victims in the domestic assault stated the defendant physically assaulted his girlfriend and her daughter, threatened them with the handgun with an extended magazine and then forced a neighbor, at gunpoint, to drive him away from the scene. During interviews with police, the victims positively identified defendant as the individual with the handgun.
On 12/12/18, detectives learned defendant was at his mother's house. KCPD officers responded to that location and recovered a handgun with an extended magazine from the defendant along with a cellular phone. Family members at the scene stated that on 12/10/18, defendant was at his mother's house and brandished the handgun with the extended magazine at his brother, threatening to "pistol whip" him. The recovered handgun was loaded with ammunition of the same type and head stamp as the casings discovered at the homicide scene and at the scene of the domestic violence assault.
Firearm technicians from the Kansas City, Missouri Regional Crime lab confirmed that the casings from the homicide scene matched the weapon taken from defendant at the time of his arrest.
Prosecutors requested $250,000 cash bond.
For more information, contact:
Jared D. Bustamante
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office
Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor
P: 816.881.3538
F: 816.674.3954
jbustamante@jacksongov.org
*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded.