# Kansas City Chiefs fan deaths: 2 charged with involuntary manslaughter

## The charges come more than a year after Ricky Johnson, David Harrington and Clayton McGeeney died on Jan. 7, 2024, outside a suburban Missouri home they had rented to watch a big NFL game.

**Prosecutors charged two men Wednesday in connection with the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans in January 2024.**

Jordan Willis, 39, and Ivory Carson, 42, are charged with distribution of a controlled substance and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths of , 38, , 37, and , 36, who died on Jan. 7, 2024 at a home that Willis rented in Kansas City, according to a statement of probable cause filed by Kansas City police.

The case attracted national attention because the fans' cause of deaths were shrouded in mystery. Court records said Wednesday that the men died from toxic effects of fentanyl and cocaine.

Willis' Kansas City-based lawyer, John Picerno, stressed his client's innocence in a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday night.

"Jordan maintains that he is not responsible for purchasing or supplying the drugs that led to led to the deaths of his three friends," Picerno said.

Picerno previously told USA TODAY that Willis is a 38-year-old scientist who lives alone and works remotely for a New York hospital.

It was not immediately known if Carson had obtained an attorney. Both men remained jailed on $100,000 bond Thursday at a Platte County detention facility.

As of Thursday, a court date had not been set for Willis or Carson, Tanya Faherty, a spokesperson for the Platte County District Attorney's Office told USA TODAY.

Faherty said Carson's last known address was in Parkville, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Kansas City.

## Harrington's family has weighed in on whether drugs played factor

Despite officials confirming autopsies were conducted in January on all three men, their official cause and manner of death remained a mystery until a doctor with Forensic Medical of Kansas found that McGeeney, Harrington, and Johnson all died of toxic effects from fentanyl and cocaine, according to court records.

For months, police told USA TODAY they did not suspect foul play in the trio's deaths.

"Some people seemed to believe charges would never be brought in this case, perhaps because the investigation has spanned more than a year," Platte County District Attorney Eric Zahnd said in a news release. "Understand this: The Kansas City Police Department and my office do not rest on homicide cases until we have exhausted every possible resource to bring anyone we believe responsible to justice."

For months, Lauren McDaniel, with Forensic Medical in Kansas City − where the men had their autopsies conducted − confirmed to USA TODAY the results remained sealed under Missouri law.

After their deaths, some of the victims' family speculated the trio died because of a drug overdose - potentially one involving fentanyl, a synthetic opioid approved for treating pain often laced into cocaine and other illicit recreational drugs.

Theresa Harrington and her husband, John Harrington, spoke about their son in a February interview with ’s Chris Cuomo, about whether drugs including fentanyl played a factor in his death.

**“David wasn’t a drug addict, or anything like that," Harrington's mother told Cuomo via a virtual video interview. "He didn't take the drugs to (die). If he took the drugs on his own, he took them to get high.”**

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration  to be 2 milligrams.

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