KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Accused child murderer Nicholas Ecker appeared in Johnson County District Court for a preliminary hearing Thursday via video conference from county jail.
All four outstanding cases against Ecker, who was arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson for allegedly setting fire to a Shawnee home that left a small child dead, were combined.
The deadly fire happened shortly before 1 a.m. on Sunday in the 10500 block of West 69th Terrace in Shawnee.
He is scheduled to appear again for a scheduling hearing for all four pending cases at 10:30 a.m. on March 31.
Ecker, 28, has an extensive criminal history in Johnson and Wyandotte counties.
Among the current pending cases, Ecker was arrested in November 2019 for domestic violence for allegedly strangling a woman and felon in possession of a firearm.
The domestic violence charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement, but he was placed on probation, which ran through Feb. 6, 2022, for the weapons charge.
He was arrested and charged Jan. 4, 2022, with aggravated domestic battery for allegedly choking a different woman. KSHB 41 News does not name victims in domestic violence cases.
The court issued a no-contact order at that time and he was freed after posting bond.
Ecker, who had the case continued at a hearing Jan. 13, allegedly violated the protection order put in place in the domestic violence case on Feb. 4.
Court records show the charges in that case weren’t filed until Monday against Ecker.
The violation of a protection order charge was amended Monday to stalking after being served, which bumps it from a Class A misdemeanor to a Level 9 felony.
According to the amended complaint, Ecker is accused of “recklessly engaging in at least one act constituting a course of conduct, that violates the provisions of the order and would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety, or the safety of a member of their immediate family, and the targeted person was actually placed in such fear.”
After he was arrested on the new domestic violence charge, Johnson County moved Jan. 26 to revoke his probation in the 2019 case, but he not been re-arrested and returned to jail yet.
That case along with the murder and arson charge, the second domestic violence charge and the amended charge for violating an order of protection remain pending in Johnson County court, but Ecker’s criminal history — including a years-long stint in state prison — goes back more than a decade.
When Ecker was 15 years old, he was charged in April 2009 for falsely reporting a crime.
Six months later, Ecker was charged Oct. 7, 2009, with battery and Oct. 21, 2009, with possession of an illegal butterfly knife and drug paraphernalia.
Two days later, Ecker was charged with damaging the plumbing and a door as well as disorderly conduct at a juvenile detention facility in Prairie Village.
All four cases were combined and he received one year of probation for the incidents, but the problems continued.
Ecker was charged with disorderly conduct again on Nov. 18, 2009, and added two new charges — making a criminal threat and battery — on Jan. 21, 2010. The criminal threat charge was amended to assault in June 2010.
Three months later, Ecker was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm with identification marks changed or altered, unlawful possession of a firearm, and theft of wheels.
Ecker was charged for the first time as an adult in September 2011 after being arrested for marijuana possession then a few weeks later with stealing a Dodge Dakota truck and Kawasaki motorcycle.
Both arrests came within days or weeks of his 18th birthday and Johnson County Judge Brenda Cameron noted that “reasonable efforts” to help Ecker as a minor “have been made and failed.”
“Juvenile (Ecker) has over 10 prior cases, has had virtually every juvenile service — including probation, house arrest, juvenile correctional facility and aftercare,” but he remained a persistent offender.
He was sentenced to eight months in prison and a year of probation, but the jail term was suspended.
Only five months later, Ecker was charged with aggravated robbery in Wyandotte County on Feb. 6, 2012.
He pleaded guilty on July 16, 2012, and was sentenced Aug. 31, 2012, to five years in prison.
Ecker spent most of the next four years in Hutchinson Correctional Facility before he was paroled on June 9, 2016, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.
Ecker also was subject to three years of post-release supervision and required to register as a violent offender after his conviction in Wyandotte County.
During that period of incarceration, Ecker was subject to a disciplinary report for unauthorized dealing or trading in November 2012 and two days later was disciplined for battery. He also got written up for fighting in March 2016.
Johnson County moved to revoke his probation in the stolen vehicles case after his release from prison and Ecker’s probation was revoked on Sept. 12, 2016.
He went back to prison until June 9, 2018.
A little more than a year later, Ecker was charged with aggravated domestic battery in November 2019 for allegedly strangling a woman, but not the same woman from the complaint last month.
He also was charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a felon.
The domestic battery charge was dropped in May 2020 as part of a plea agreement, but Ecker pleaded guilty to the weapons charge and was placed on probation for 18 months at an August 2020 sentencing.
Ecker’s probation in that case ended earlier this month, but it was pending revocation prior to the deadly Shawnee fire that killed a 1-year-old child family has identified as “Junior.”
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