Jesse Lee McFall, a 31-year-old Caucasian male, was fatally shot shortly before midnight on Thursday, January 11, 2018, in a west Topeka, Kansas hotel. The incident occurred at the Best Western located at 700 S.W. Fairlawn. An altercation in a hotel room led to McFall's death. He was born in Topeka on September 21, 1986.
Two men, Logan Lee Able Bartley and Vincent Dean Gonzalez-Rook, were later arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.
Prosecutors alleged that the pair had gone to the hotel with the intention of robbing McFall, believing he had a significant amount of cash. During the subsequent trial, the narrative of what transpired in the hotel room was heavily contested.
The defense attorneys for Bartley and Gonzalez-Rook argued that their clients were not the aggressors. They claimed that Bartley shot McFall in an act of self-defense. According to their testimony, McFall had a knife and was threatening Gonzalez-Rook. Bartley stated that he fired twice after McFall, who was on top of Gonzalez-Rook, raised a lock-blade knife to stab him.
After a nine-day trial, a jury acquitted both Logan Lee Able Bartley and Vincent Dean Gonzalez-Rook of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery. However, the jury did find them guilty of a lesser charge of felony theft. During the trial, Gonzalez-Rook admitted to taking McFall's wallet, containing $1,640, from the hotel floor after the shooting, an act he described as an impulse. While the murder charges were dismissed, the two men faced sentencing for the theft conviction.
