Man sentenced to 40 years for killing, dismemberment

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man who chopped the head and hands off his victim was sentenced to 40 years in prison, culminating a criminal career that stretches back to at least 1958.

Chester E. James, 60, of Kansas City, was sentenced in Jackson County Circuit Court to the maximum 30 years for second-degree murder and 10 years for armed criminal action. The terms are to run consecutively.

James was convicted of shooting Kevin M. Tucker, 38, in February 2000. He later returned to the scene and chopped off Tucker's head and hands with an ax, police said, and dumped the body parts in a trash bin. Tucker was identified by a partial palm print

James' son, Vincent M. James, 20, of Kansas City, told police he accompanied his father when the victim's body was mutilated. But at his father's trial, Vincent James refused to testify, citing his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Vincent James has been indicted by a Jackson County grand jury on one count of tampering with evidence and one count of abandoning a corpse. It is believed to be the first time the second charge has been applied in Missouri since the law was enacted in 1995.