SHAWNEE — A court document indicates that a Kansas man charged with stabbing a woman to death says he did so because she had threatened to tell everyone he had HIV.
Ronald Lee Kidwell is charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of 43-year-old MeShon Cooper, who was missing for a week until her body was found July 14 at Kidwell’s home in Shawnee.
According to an affidavit, Kidwell said he became enraged when Cooper threatened to reveal his status and stabbed her.
Kidwell’s estranged daughter and a neighbor told The Kansas City Star that Cooper’s death was likely a hate crime because Kidwell was an avowed white supremacist. Cooper was black.
FBI and Johnson County authorities declined to discuss the possibility the Cooper’s death was a hate crime.
