PLATTE CITY, Mo. — Two men pleaded not guilty Thursday in the drug overdose 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 appeared separately via video from the jail wearing orange jumpsuits. The men were charged Wednesday 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.
Willis’ lawyer, John Picerno, entered the not guilty plea on Willis’ behalf, and the judge entered the plea on behalf of Carson, who doesn’t yet have an attorney and plans to apply for a public defender. The hearing lasted just minutes.
The judge set the next hearing date for Tuesday to consider whether bond should remain 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 fiancee went looking for him.
With information sparse, the case got attention on TikTok and other social platforms. Family members of the three men took their frustrations to Kansas City-area media, questioning when there would be charges.
The filing of charges confirmed what some online sleuths had long assumed: The three men died of drugs. According to the probable cause statement, a doctor with a forensic lab later determined that the combined toxicity of fentanyl and cocaine killed them.
Witnesses said the friends used cocaine while watching the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers together on Jan. 7, 2024, first at Harrington’s home and then Willis’ home. 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.
Willis told police that he believed that McGeeney, Harrington and Johnson possibly got a hold of some fentanyl and that he thought they all left his home around 4 a.m., the morning after the game
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.
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 has 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.”