KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Eric DeValkenaere’s attorneys filed a motion for rehearing and applied to have his criminal case transferred to the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon.
The filings come two weeks after the Missouri Court of Appeals for Western Missouri unanimously affirmed his conviction for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the Dec. 3, 2019, shooting death of Cameron Lamb in the 4100 block of College Avenue.
DETAILED TIMELINE | Shooting of Cameron Lamb, conviction of Eric DeValkenaere
A Jackson County judge ruled that DeValkenaere — a former Kansas City, Missouri, police detective who spent more than 20 years with the department — was negligent in entering Lamb’s property without a warrant, without permission and without probable cause when he followed another officer onto the property and kicked over a makeshift fence to reach the backyard before shooting and killing Lamb.
A grand jury indicted DeValkenaere in June 2020 and Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs presided over DeValkenaere’s four-day bench trial, finding him guilty in November 2021 and imposing a six-year prison sentence in March 2022.
DeValkenaere filed an appeal in October 2022.
A three-judge appeals court panel upheld that conviction in October 2023.
The appeals court also issued an arrest warrant for DeValkenaere, who was allowed to remain free on bond with the appeal pending.
He surrendered the day of the ruling at the Platte County Adult Detention Center and was subsequently transferred to the Western Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, a Missouri Department of Corrections prison in St. Joseph.
DeValkenaere’s attorneys challenged the trial and appellate court’s findings, based largely on violating Lamb’s Fourth Amendment rights, in a 26-page motion that also took issue with the role that the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office played in the appeal process.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office refused to defend the conviction, prompting Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker’s office to seek permission to defend the verdict it won at trial.
Jonathan Laurans, the appellate attorney for DeValkenaere, argued that “transfer is needed to avoid the consequences that will be brought about by the Panel's opinion for Missouri's law enforcement officers and its communities” in a 13-page application for transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court.
Lamb's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against DeValkenaere and the KCPD Board of Police Commissioners, which has been delayed as the civil court awaits a resolution in the criminal proceedings.
DeValkenaere's attorneys also have informally petitioned Missouri Gov. Mike Parson for a pardon.
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