By Calvin Palmer
A 37-year-old man has been charged with murder in connection with the four people, including a three-year-old girl, found dead at a home in Kansas City on Monday.
Adrian Burks, of Kansas City, Kansas, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 66-year-old James Warren; 21-year-old Amanda Remmers; 41-year-old Peggy Castleberry; and her three-year-old daughter, Juanita Castleberry-Bess.
He was charged with aggravated battery, , which occurred two or three hours before the homicides, and eluding police. He is being held at Wyandotte County jail on $2 million bond.
All four victims died from multiple gunshot wounds and were found dead in the home owned by Warren.
Relatives of the victims said Burks and Remmers had a relationship at one time and that Burks had threatened to kill Remmers and the other residents who lived at the house on Muncie Drive.
Shenia Gutto, a cousin of three-year-old Juanita, said that the little girl was her first cousin but that, because of their age difference, she was more like a niece.
“She was only three years old,” Gutto said. “She’s innocent. She didn’t have nothing to do with anything.”
Relatives and acquaintances described Warren as a kind man who regularly offered shelter for people who were homeless or going through drug rehabilitation.
“He took a lot of people in and tried to help a lot of people out,” Gutto said. “He was a real nice man.”
[Based on reports by the Associated Press and Kansas City Star.]
