A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday (May 24) after he admitted that he shot and killed a Kansas City rapper in 2015. Derius Taylor, 32, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 20-year-old Dominique Stafford, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Stafford’s body was found inside a car in eastern Kansas City on April 23, 2015. Taylor arranged to buy drugs from Stafford but actually intended to rob him. Taylor got into Stafford’s car, shot him and took a rifle and a diamond-encrusted pendant the necklace, detectives said. Another person got in the car with Stafford’s body and drove away while Taylor followed in the second car, detectives said.
They later the car with Stafford’s body where police found it. Detectives later learned Taylor pawned the pendant he took from Stafford. The month before Stafford’s brother, Arthur Stafford Jr., 22, was found fatally shot a month before Dominique Stafford was killed, The Kansas City Star reported.
The Stafford brothers were rap artists with Duced Out Records, a Kansas City-based record company.
