INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A 28-year-old man charged with second degree murder Tuesday surrendered to police.
Nicholas Cannon is accused of shooting and killing another man, after he caught that man in bed with his girlfriend, the mother of Cannon’s child.
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Cannon appeared in Jackson County Court on charges of second degree murder and armed criminal action. He claims he killed in self-defense because he feared for the safety of his four-year-old daughter, who was with him at the time of the shooting.
FOX 4 News was there when Cannon surrendered himself to Independence police Tuesday morning.
Cannon claims he and his 4-year-old daughter went looking for the girl’s mother back in September. He says Tiffanie Stevenson had not returned home after a night out with family and friends.
Cannon found Stevenson in bed with another man at her parents’ home on South Sterling. Cannon says when he started yelling at the other man, Justin Sneegas. A naked Sneegas rolled over in bed and reached for something that Cannon believed was a gun.
Court documents say Cannon has a conceal carry permit and was armed with a handgun, which he used to fire three shots, killing Sneegas.
Cannon’s lawyer says his client believed he and his daughter were in danger and he acted in self-defense.
“It is what it is,” said Patrick Peters, Cannon’s lawyer. “It was a tragic set of circumstances. He believed that his and his child’s life was in danger and acted with what we believe was within the law. The next step is we’ll see what evidence there is and go forward.”
In court documents Stevenson told detectives she did not see the actual shooting because she ran to the bathroom when Cannon burst in. But she did hear the two men arguing.
Cannon is being held on $150,000 bond. Peters says he’ll seek to get that reduced. He is expected back in court again on March 3.
