On a busy Saturday evening, March 16, 2019, Dontayus Wiles, a 40-year-old man, was fatally shot in the bustling parking lot of the Wild Woody's Happy Foods market in Kansas City, Missouri. The brazen attack occurred in the Ingleside neighborhood, amidst shoppers and even children, shattering the day's normalcy with a hail of seventeen gunshots. Wiles was leaving the store with his wife when the tragic events unfolded.
The investigation into Wiles's death uncovered a chilling plot of
meticulous surveillance. Authorities discovered a GPS tracking device secretly placed on his red Chevrolet Tahoe. This tracker had been purchased on Amazon by Dontay Campbell, who used a credit card in his own name for the transaction, leaving a digital trail for investigators. Campbell, along with his alleged conspirators, Michael Smith and Lawrence Courtney Lawhorn, had been monitoring Wiles's movements, a sinister prelude to the fatal encounter. On the day of the shooting, the men followed Wiles to the grocery store, lying in wait.
As Wiles and his wife made their way back to their vehicle, their assailants pulled up beside them in a Chrysler Sebring. It is alleged that Lawrence Courtney Lawhorn exited the Sebring and opened fire on Wiles with a. 40-caliber handgun. In a frantic attempt to erase their tracks, Campbell tried to remove the incriminating GPS device from Wiles’s Tahoe during the chaos but was unsuccessful. The men then fled the scene, leaving Wiles with multiple gunshot wounds from which he would later die.
The investigation led to the indictment of Campbell, Smith, and Lawhorn. Dontay Campbell later pleaded guilty to a federal charge of cyberstalking resulting in death, admitting to his role in the surveillance and murder of Dontayus Wiles. As part of his plea agreement, Campbell faces a maximum of 30 years in federal prison. Michael Smith and Lawrence Courtney Lawhorn continue to face charges in connection with Wiles's death. Smith has been in custody without bond since his initial arrest and, along with Campbell, was also implicated in a separate federal fraud case.
