DeMarko L. Collins, Murder, Missouri 2015

A North Kansas City man was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison without parole for his role in the murder of an Independence, Mo., man in 2015.

DeMarko L. Collins, 28, was found guilty of two counts of illegally possessing a firearm. The court granted the government’s motion for a sentence longer than the penalty recommended under the federal sentencing guidelines due to Collins’s violent characteristics and criminal history.

Collins was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to nine years on each count to run consecutively to each other. The court ruled there was sufficient evidence that Collins was involved in the murder of David Duncan, for which he has not been charged in state court.

According to court documents, Duncan had been feuding with Collins, who believed that Duncan had paid someone to murder his cousin. Collins, a member of the Crips street gang, referred to himself as “the biggest gang member in Kansas City.” He admitted to trafficking in multiple pounds of marijuana, selling an estimated 200 pounds in the months prior to his arrest.

Collins also admitted to stabbing two inmates while he was previously incarcerated in federal prison. He was sentenced on March 4, 2009, to six years and eight months in federal prison after pleading guilty to carjacking. Collins was three months removed from parole on his robbery conviction at the time of the homicide.

Collins was arrested on Sept. 30, 2015, after a search warrant was executed at his apartment. During the search, officers found a Heckler & Koch .45-caliber pistol in a cabinet in the kitchen, which had been reported as stolen. The firearm used to murder Duncan was found to be linked to an orange Dodge Journey, which was registered to Collins’s girlfriend.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Q. McCarther. It was investigated by the Independence, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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