In the summer of 2020, a Kansas City man's life was abruptly and violently ended in a senseless act that began inside his own vehicle. On the evening of July 22, 35-year-old Lodiller Styles was found with gunshot wounds in the middle of the street at East 40th Street and Tracy Avenue. He was a male victim of a shocking crime that unfolded in broad daylight.
Earlier that day, Styles had been with Jonathan L. Bradford, a man described as his friend.
A witness who was also in Styles' blue pickup truck recalled that Bradford had been smoking narcotics and was behaving erratically. The situation escalated when Styles, who was driving, pulled over to let Bradford out. A simple issue with the truck's child-locked doors led to a fatal outburst. After Styles instructed him on how to open the door, Bradford suddenly shot him in the head. The truck then collided with a nearby van.
The horror did not end with the shooting. Witnesses reported seeing Bradford pull Styles from the driver's seat and onto the street. As Bradford fled the scene in Styles' truck, he ran over his body. This brutal series of events left the Manheim Park neighborhood shaken and Styles' family searching for answers. The investigation quickly pointed to Bradford as the primary suspect.
Within a week, Jonathan Bradford, then 38, was arrested and charged with a slate of felonies, including second-degree murder, armed criminal action, tampering with a motor vehicle, and abandonment of a corpse. A key piece of evidence was a Facebook message Bradford sent to a relative in which he appeared to confess, writing in part, 'than f--- it yes I did do it.' Despite this and witness testimony, Bradford denied shooting Styles during his police interview. In June 2023, a jury found him guilty on all counts. Subsequently, in September of that year, a Jackson County judge sentenced Bradford to life in prison for the murder, with an additional seven years for the other felonies.
