For Immediate Release
Sept. 26, 2022
A 35-year-old Kansas City man faces multiple felony charges for the fatal shooting in September 2021 of Morte4z Falkner in the 18th and Vine District, Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker announced today.
Celon D. White, dob: 6/11/1987, faces Murder 2nd Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and two other counts of Armed Criminal Action*
According to court records, Kansas City police responded on Sept. 8, 2021 to Truman Medical Center and were advised that a deceased man had been fatally wounded while he was in the area of 19th and Vine that evening. The victim was identified as Mortez Falkner, dob: 9/7/1989. In September 2022, police recovered the stolen vehicle involved in the shooting in the area of 28th and Walrond. Surveillance video showed that the vehicle was abandoned on Sept. 8, 2021, just hours after the homicide. Testing of spent shell casings found at the homicide scene linked the defendant to the casings. In addition, DNA taken from the stolen vehicle found Sept. 15, 2022, also matched to the defendant.
Prosecutors requested the defendant be held on no bond.
For more information, contact:
Michael Mansur
Director of Communication
Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office
Jean Peters Baker, Prosecutor
Work : (816) 881-3812
Mobile : (816) 674-3954
www.jacksoncountyprosecutor.com
mmansur@jacksongov.org
*Charges are only accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until the defendant is either found guilty or has pleaded guilty.