Man serving prison time for Kansas City firefighters' deaths seeks lower sentence

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A man serving a life sentence for his role in a 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters will argue in court that his sentence should be reduced.

U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson filed a court briefing Wednesday agreeing that Bryan Sheppard, who was 17 at the time of the explosion, should be able to argue for a lower sentence before a federal judge.

Sheppard was one of five people convicted in the firefighters' deaths. One of the defendants died in prison. All of them always maintained they were innocent.

Sheppard's attorney sought the resentencing hearing after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles violated the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, The Kansas City Star reported. Sheppard was the only one of the defendants who was a juvenile at the time of the explosion.

"We were pleased to learn today that Bryan would be given an opportunity to return to court," said his attorney Cynthia Short. She said the hearing will give Sheppard a chance to "ask the court to consider factors that were not considered at the time of his original sentencing."

Firefighters Thomas Fry, Gerald Halloran, Luther Hurd, James Kilventon Jr., Robert D. McKarnin and Michael Oldham were killed Nov. 29, 1988, while fighting a fire in a construction trailer in south Kansas City.

Nearly nine years later, the five defendants were convicted in a federal jury trial. One of them, Skip Sheppard, died in prison in 2009.

It is not clear if evidence that might address Sheppard's innocence will be heard at the resentencing hearing. The government argued in its filing Wednesday that evidence should be related only to Sheppard being a minor when he was sentenced to life in prison.

Marion Germann, a retired battalion chief and the only firefighter still alive who was at the explosion site at the time, said Wednesday he remains unsure if the right people went to trial.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate, who represents defendant Darlene Edwards, said she was pleased the case is going back to court.

"While we understand that a resentencing hearing in no way bears on a jury's verdict, it does provide an opportunity for consideration of facts that bear on whether justice was done," she said.

A 2011 U.S. Department of Justice investigation, prompted by stories in The Star, acknowledged that other people were involved in the crime along with the defendants. Dickinson has not said whether she intends to pursue those new defendants.

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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com