Two Kansas City men used GPS to stalk murder victims, including mother of 4: charges [The Kansas City Star]

Oct. 15—Two Kansas City men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Kansas City on charges that they illegally used GPS devices to track people, including a mother of four, who were subsequently killed in separate 2019 shootings, court records show.

Michael Smith, 35, and Dontay Campbell, 32, are charged in U.S. District Court in Kansas City with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking along with aiding and abetting cyberstalking resulting in death.

Smith and Campbell are further accused in court documents of personally carrying out the shooting of one victim.

According to court documents, in February 2019 a real-time GPS tracker with a magnetic weatherproof case was purchased using Campbell's Amazon account and was paid for with a credit card bearing his name. Five days later, court records allege, that tracker was placed on a red Chevy Tahoe driven by Dontayus Wiles, a 40-year-old Kansas City man who would be shot to death two weeks later.

On March 16, 2019, Smith and Campbell drove to Wiles' location at the Happy Foods grocery store and waited for him in the parking lot, the indictment alleges. As Wiles was leaving the lot, Smith allegedly approached Wiles and fired a gun at him more than a dozen times, prosecutors allege.

Campbell unsuccessfully attempted to retrieve the GPS device from underneath Wiles' SUV, the indictment says. Then the two men got in their own car, circled the lot, shot Wiles again, and again unsuccessfully tried to remove the GPS device before leaving the scene, according to court records.

Kansas City police found Wiles suffering from several gunshot wounds when they responded to the market. He was rushed to an area hospital and died there, police have said.

The car used in the shooting was found abandoned near a wooded area with its front end over an embankment toward a steep ravine with its rear wheels in the air, court records say. Both men left the Kansas City area for Phoenix four days later, the indictment says.

Several days after the shooting, Smith allegedly posted a sequence of videos on his Snapchat social media account, where he is seen counting money and said, "You all want to play rough, let me show you something.... You do the addition if you want to.. you know I ain't do no talking buddy."

The indictment ties Smith to a second killing in December 2019.

Candace Craig

In June of that year, another GPS device was activated in Smith's name along with his telephone number and email addresses. That device was allegedly used to track a Nissan Altima driven by Candace Craig, a 32-year-old mother of four slain on Dec. 12, 2019.

The indictment does not name the suspected shooter of Craig. But it states that the device registered to Smith was used as she was put under surveillance and ambushed in the parking lot of her apartment complex in the 400 block of Highland Avenue.

In addition to Campbell and Smith, the indictment references six other unnamed co-conspirators not currently facing criminal charges related to the killings.

Smith and Campbell were both indicted in a separate federal fraud case uncovered by authorities in December 2020. They are among 19 defendants accused of participating in a $1.2 million insurance fraud conspiracy that involved making false claims of injuries suffered in car accidents, according to federal prosecutors.

Smith has been held in custody without bond since his initial arrest. Campbell was recently taken into federal custody after posting bond related to the federal fraud indictment.

This story was originally published October 15, 2021 12:28 PM.

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