• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Sunday, June 22, 2025
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem!
    • Weekly Pickem Updates
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Guilty of damaging hotel room used by homeless

Landmark Staff by Landmark Staff
April 29, 2022
in Headlines
Guilty of damaging hotel room used by homeless
16
SHARES
405
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

A quick decision by the jury

A Platte County jury has convicted a man for starting a fire in a hotel room used as a temporary shelter for the homeless.

Travis Betts, 43, of Prairie Village, Kansas, was found guilty on April 19 of the felony of knowingly burning.

RelatedNews

City officials receive training

Arnold, Mo. man will be new city administrator

Buffy Smith named chief of staff for Sam Graves

Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said, “This defendant’s actions created a dangerous situation and undermined efforts to help the homeless community find emergency housing. All Platte County residents, regardless of socio-economic status, deserve to live in a place where this sort of criminal behavior is not tolerated.”

Jurors deliberated for less than thirty minutes before reaching a verdict.

Jurors found that, on July 14, 2021, Betts started a fire in the bathtub of a hotel room in what was previously known as the Sure Stay Hotel located near KCI Airport.

The Kansas City Police and Fire Departments both responded to that location at approximately 5 p.m. in response to a 911 call from hotel security reporting a disturbance in the room.

Upon arrival, police officers were forced to kick in the door to the bathroom. Betts was blocking the door and was detained. Firefighters then extinguished a fire in the bathtub.

Betts admitted to being under the influence of methamphetamine when he started the fire.

At the time, the hotel was being used as a temporary emergency shelter for the homeless. The City of Kansas City had embarked on an emergency hotel initiative in response to the rise in the homeless population during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A woman staying at the hotel testified that she met Betts under a bridge off Barry Road. She agreed to let Betts come back to her room to take a shower after he gave her some food to eat.

A fire investigation expert with the Kansas City Police Department’s bomb and arson unit testified that the fire was intentionally set.

Betts’ criminal history stretches back to 1996 and includes almost two dozen prior felony convictions. Zahnd said Betts has never gone more than a few months before committing another crime.

Zahnd said, “This defendant is the textbook example of a dangerous career criminal. Although this fire was quickly extinguished by Kansas City firefighters, it could instead have spread, endangering the lives of many people.”

Betts is scheduled to be sentenced on June 16. Prosecutors charged him as a prior and persistent offender, which increases his maximum sentence. As a result, he faces up to seven years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Kansas City Police Department. It was tried by assistant prosecuting attorneys Brice Barnard and Collin VanOstran.

Tags: covid-19eric zahndplatte countyPublic Safety
Landmark Staff

Landmark Staff

Related Posts

45 Years Ago–June 20, 1980

by Ivan Foley
June 20, 2025
0

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Baker, Jr. of Platte City announce the engagement of their daughter, Lori Ann Baker, to Devin Sherry, son of Mr. and Mrs. Willis Sherry of Smithville. The future bride is a 1980 graduate of Platte County...

30 Years Ago–June 22, 1995

by Ivan Foley
June 20, 2025
0

Robert Vick, the Dearborn reserve police officer suspended for 30 days by the city’s board of aldermen last month, has been reinstated. This action came at the board’s meeting last Wednesday. Vick had been suspended after many residents of Dearborn...

15 Years Ago–June 23, 2010

by Ivan Foley
June 20, 2025
0

Platte City police expect to submit a case file to juvenile authorities this week regarding a report they received from a local 17-year-old girl claiming to have been raped and sodomized over a span of four years by her step-brother....

Don’t know if you’ve heard but. . .

Protests, dinner parties and such

by Guy Speckman
June 20, 2025
0

Just reread my column from last week, I was in a dark place, you probably should have sent help. Try to be a better reader going forward. I did not make it out to any protests last week. I voiced...

Next Post
Northland Ethnic Festival

Around the world

Popular News

  • Ruslan Huseynov

    Details about murder suspect begin to emerge

    138 shares
    Share 55 Tweet 35
  • Charged in burglaries in Running Horse corridor

    14 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Platte City makes offer to man from Arnold, Mo.

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • New bridge going in on Hwy. Z

    12 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • Buffy Smith named chief of staff for Sam Graves

    8 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Pickem Terms and Conditions
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Online
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Pickem
    • Results by Week
    • The Leaderboard
    • Pickem Rules and Help
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • es_MXSpanish

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved