Kansas City cop convicted in Black man’s killing is on his way to Missouri prison
Former Kansas City police detective Eric J. DeValkenaere, whose conviction in the shooting death of a Black man was upheld by an appeals court last week, has been taken to a Missouri prison to begin serving his sentence.
DeValkenaere had been held in the Platte County jail since Oct. 17, after the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, upheld his conviction in the 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb.
On Wednesday he was removed from the jail for transportation to the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in St. Joseph, said Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman with the Missouri Department of Corrections.
DeValkenaere, 44, who is white, had been found guilty at trial in Jackson County in 2021 on charges of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action. He was sentenced to six years in prison.
In a rare decision by a Jackson County judge, DeValkenaere had been allowed to remain free on bond for nearly two years while he appealed his conviction.
Maj. Erik Holland, a spokesman for the Platte County Sheriff’s Office which operates the county jail, confirmed that DeValkenaere was no longer being held at their facility and had been transported by the department of corrections.
