KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The family of Diamond Steen, the man killed in front of an O'Reilly's in Kansas City, Kansas, says they are mourning his needless death.
Officers found Steen and another man taped, bound and zip-tied, according to court documents.
Employees say the two man were stealing two cans of paint and some sandpaper totaling $73.
It's a price Steen's aunt Sawnya Helm says wasn't worth a life.
"Absolutely not," she said. "It's not worth anybody's life."
She says now Steen won't ever get his day in the justice system, but store employee Carl Kemppainen may spend years in it.
Helm says this whole thing could've changed with three numbers.
"911 would've taken care of it," she said. "Now we're in a situation where one man has lost his life, which is my nephew, and another man is about to lose his freedom."
According to the court documents, video shows Kemppainen putting Steen in a chokehold until his body went limp. An autopsy shows the cause of death was strangulation.
The second-degree murder charges Keppainen faces describe the killing as unintentional, but reckless.
"You might not have intentionally did it, but you did it," Helm said, addressing Kemppainen.
She's not making any excuses for what Steen did or what he's accused of taking before he left the store, but she says now two families pay the price.
"You have two lives that are essentially lost there," she said. "And two families that are essentially affected."
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