By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Two men were charged Wednesday in the deaths of three Kansas City Chiefs fans whose bodies were found in a backyard two days after they got together to watch the final game of the regular season in 2024.
Jordan Willis and Ivory Carson are each charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of delivery of a controlled substance in a case that gained widespread attention on social media. Their bond is set at $100,000 cash only.
Speculation about what happened started after 38-year-old Ricky Johnson, 36-year-old Clayton McGeeney and 37-year-old David Harrington were found dead in Willis’ Kansas City, Missouri, yard on Jan. 9, 2024, after McGeeney’s fiancée went looking for him. A doctor with a forensic lab later determined that the combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine killed them, according to the probable cause statement.
Witnesses said the friends were using cocaine when they got together first at Harrington’s home and then Willis’ on Jan. 7, 2024, to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers. The witnesses said Willis had a history of offering cocaine to his friends when they were low on money and that he bought it from Carson, according to the probable cause statement.
But Willis’ lawyer, John Picerno, said there is no evidence that Willis bought the drugs that his friends ingested before their deaths, noting they had been partying all day. And he said Willis didn’t know that they were still in his backyard — or that they needed medical attention — until police showed up.
“It has been a very, very long year for Jordan,” Picerno said. “He’s lost his job. He’s lost his home. He’s lost his friends. The public are pointing at him as someone who essentially killed them. And nothing could be further from the truth.”
Willis told police that he believed that McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson possibly got a hold of some fentanyl at some point on the Sunday the game was played and that he thought they all left his home around 4 a.m. the next morning.
Weather records indicate the low temperature that night was around 33 degrees (1 degree Celsius).
Investigators interviewed Carson, who admitted to selling cocaine to Johnson, Willis, Harrington and McGeeney before Jan. 1, 2024, the probable cause statement says. No attorney is listed for Carson in online court records.
In the weeks and months since the three deaths, the case went viral on TikTok and other social platforms for its true-crime overtones. And family members of the three men have taken their frustrations to Kansas City-area media, questioning when there would be charges.
