White Judge Gives White Kansas Cop Light Murder Sentence (6 Yrs prison) and Allows Him to Remain Free Until Whenever His Appeal is Decided. Shot Black Man to Death in His Driveway and Lied About It
From [HERE] Eric DeValkenaere, a former Kansas City police detective, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison in the 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb — though he will remain free on bond as he appeals. DeValkenaere, 43, was convicted in November of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the Dec. 3, 2019, fatal shooting of Lamb at 4154 College Ave. It marked the first time a KCPD officer was convicted in the killing of a Black man.
White police tracking a car involved in a traffic incident in December 2019 followed Cameron Lamb as he was pulling his red pickup truck into the garage of his backyard in Kansas City, Mo. Without a warrant or permission allowing them on the property, two plainclothes detectives “stormed around the side of the house” and demanded to know where he was, according to a federal lawsuit.
Then, while Lamb, a Black man, allegedly had one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his cellphone, Detective Eric DeValkenaere, who is White, offered no warning before shooting him four times while the man was still in his truck in the driveway, hitting him twice and killing the 26-year-old.
DeValkenaere claimed Lamb was armed, but the judge, after a bench trial, apparently found no merit to said claim.
DeValkenaere was sentenced to three years for the involuntary manslaughter conviction and six years for armed criminal action. The sentences were set to run at the same time. During the sentencing hearing, Lamb’s loved ones gave emotional testimony as they tried to convey to Jackson County Circuit Court Judge J. Dale Youngs how his killing affected their family.
Dion Sankar, chief deputy prosecutor, asked Youngs to sentence DeValkenaere to nine years in prison for each of the nine seconds the former detective took before shooting Lamb that day.
Judge J. Dale Youngs (in photo at top of page), the white judge who convicted the white Kansas City police officer took the unusual step of agreeing to let him stay out of prison on bond after his appeal. Youngs earlier granted a request from defense attorneys that DeValkenaere not be taken into custody after the sentencing hearing. The decisions surprised most attorneys familiar with the criminal justice system because it is rare - almost never granted for most defendants. The appeals process could take up to 2 years.
The Rev. Darron Edwards, who attended the criminal trial, said residents left the sentencing with a “question mark,” considering that DeValkenaere will remain free on bond during his appeal. “We went for justice for all,” Edwards said. Fourth District Kansas City Councilman Eric Bunch called the shooting “tragic across the board” and noted the Lamb family continues to grieve. “Justice didn’t happen with the guilty verdict; justice isn’t going to happen with the sentencing,” he said Thursday. “True justice would have been Cameron Lamb not getting gunned down in the first place.”