By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A 32-year-old St. Joseph man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing an Independence woman in a Kansas City hotel room and dumping her body along a rural Buchanan County road.
Marcus Brooks, who is listed as homeless, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of 21-year-old Ariel Starcher.
A Buchanan County jury found Brooks guilty last month.
Starcher died of suffocation in a Kansas City hotel room February 6th of 2020. Brooks and 25-year-old Taylor Stoughton attacked her, bound her hands and feet, gagged her with duct tape and a washcloth. Stoughton pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder in the death and testified against Brooks during his trial. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Buchanan County Sheriff Department deputies discovered the body outside of Faucett.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.