A Jackson County judge ordered a 25-year-old man to spend life in prison for the 2021 kidnapping and murder of a Kansas Citian who was held for ransom and found dead in the Swope Parkway-Elmwood neighborhood.
Rashaud Q. Lewis, of Kansas City, received the maximum sentence for his conviction on second-degree murder during a court hearing on Friday. The 25-year-old, who was convicted in July alongside an alleged accomplice, was sentenced to 16 additional years in prison for kidnapping and armed criminal action.
Lewis stood trial for the murder of Gilberto Gutierrez, 52, who was reported missing May 11, 2021. The kidnapping victim’s body was discovered, doused with chemicals, under a tarp near 56th Street and Elmwood Avenue six days later.
Gutierrez’s family called 911 after they found his bloody clothes and a zip tie inside a barn at his south Kansas City ranch. His keys and phone were missing, but his car was still parked in the driveway.
A witness reported receiving a call from the 52-year-old’s cellphone. The caller demanded $100,000 in ransom, according to court documents.
Kansas City homicide detectives connected the disappearance to Lewis and 33-year-old Ahmad Herring, also convicted of murder and sentenced in July to nearly 50 years in prison.
Detectives were made aware of a white Dodge Charger associated with Herring that was thought to be involved in the disappearance. Herring fled a traffic stop three days after the kidnapping, and police found several items in the trunk connected to the investigation.
There were containers of bleach, vinegar and ammonia plus a receipt that showed the purchase of three blue drop cloths. Several cell phones were also seized as evidence.
As Herring was being held on a felony charge of eluding police, Lewis spoke with him over the recorded jail phone and said: “Everything is good. Everything is 100.” Authorities came to determine they were discussing a coverup of the crimes.
An anonymous tip also led police to a Kansas City residence where a relative of Lewis lived. Inside a garage was evidence that Gutierrez had been held against his will there, including zip ties.
Prosecutors relied in part on cell phone messages and calls made between Lewis and Herring that they said were evidence of their coordinated kidnapping and coverup.
In a sentencing memorandum for Lewis filed Tuesday, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Cailtin Brock wrote that Gutierrez, a father of three, husband, and “hardworking immigrant,” was “discarded like trash on the side of a lonely stretch of road.”
She said he “undoubtedly spent the last days of his life on this planet in unimaginable terror” as he was zip-tied, stabbed and beaten so severely that the medical examiner could not fully determine how many wounds he suffered.
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