Man's murder conviction vacated after more than 15 years in prison

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- On Monday, Dec. 9, a Wyandotte County judge vacated the murder conviction of a Kansas City, Kansas man who has spent 15 years behind bars for a double homicide.

According to court records, 34-year-old Cedric Warren was charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and one count of attempted first-degree murder after investigators say he killed Larry LeDoux and Charles Ford and attempted to kill another person in 2009.

The Midwest Innocence Project (MIP) says that Wyandotte County Judge Aaron Roberts ruled on Monday that Warren’s constitutional rights were violated during his trial after the State failed to disclose that its primary witness suffered from mental illness.

It was reported that the Wyandotte County District Attorney's Office had largely based its case on a sole witness's testimony—a witness who MIP claims suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was taken to a psychiatric institution after giving a statement to Kansas City, Kansas, police.

As well as this, the DA's Office failed to disclose to the prosecution that the witness admitted to not knowing who committed the crime. According to legal rulings, this is known as a Brady violation.

In a petition, MIP argued to overturn the murder conviction due to a lack of physical evidence connecting Warren to the Feb. 13, 2009, double homicide.

MIP attorneys also argued that none of Warren's DNA, including his fingerprints, was found at the scene. He also reportedly did not have a large amount of money or drugs at the scene of the crime.

The majority of the evidence used to convict Warren was based primarily on the DA's main witness, who MIP says heard voices, had memory issues and had been deemed "incompetent to stand trial in a criminal case" only a few years before Warren's arrest.

FOX4 dug through court records and found former Kansas City Kansas Police Detective Roger Golubski was the homicide captain and supervised Warren’s case. In 2022, Golubski was charged with separate civil rights violations. He died last week on the day his federal trial was supposed to begin.

"As chief, I have a 32-year track record of holding people accountable (and) treating people fairly. You won’t be able to find anyone that would say something counter to that. We have put detailed things in place to ensure the allege allegations of Golubski cannot occur in the current environment,” Kansas City, Kansas Police Chief Karl Oakman shared with FOX4.

Oakman became KCKPD’s Chief of Police in 2021.

“Well, if you violate a policy, you get disciplined or you get terminated, which we’ve always done. Since I have been chief, I know there has been 12 officers that we have either terminated or have been terminated or resigned, in lieu of termination.”

FOX4 also met with Unified Government’s Mayor Tyrone Garner during his State of the Government speech on Tuesday.

"Because of pending litigation. I cannot comment on any of the things you just spoke about,” Garner shared when FOX4 asked a question regarding Warren’s case.

Although Warren's conviction has been vacated, he will stay behind bars until the DA's Office decides to dismiss the case or retry Warren within the next 30 days.

This case is being represented by Morgan Pilate and MIP.