Jackson County prosecutors accuse Antwon Shirley of six felonies after investigators combined eyewitness accounts, physical evidence and alleged admissions.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The murder case filed after Nevada Mosley was fatally shot inside her Kansas City home is built on several distinct lines of evidence, including a child’s account, a damaged bedroom door, surveillance footage and statements her boyfriend allegedly made after leaving the scene.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Antwon Shirley, 43, with second-degree murder, armed criminal action, first-degree burglary, unlawful possession of a firearm and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Mosley, 38, died after the Aug. 1 shooting at a residence on Agnes Avenue. The prosecutor’s office confirmed the charges in an Aug. 7 case update but noted that they remain accusations and that Shirley is presumed innocent unless he pleads guilty or is convicted.
The evidence described publicly so far falls into several categories rather than a single accusation. Police say children inside the home identified Shirley in connection with the shooting. Investigators collected shell casings and documents from the bedroom. Surveillance footage showed Shirley’s vehicle outside. Other witnesses described tension between Mosley and Shirley before her death, and a relative later told police that Shirley made statements appearing to acknowledge responsibility.
The first category came from the scene itself. Officers were dispatched shortly before 7 a.m. to the 5600 block of Agnes Avenue for a reported shooting. They found a juvenile outside the residence and an open front door. Mosley was discovered in a back bedroom suffering from gunshot wounds and was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Investigators said the bedroom door appeared to have been forcibly kicked in.
Police recovered shell casings from the bedroom floor. They also found paperwork belonging to both Shirley and Mosley, according to the probable cause statement described in news reports. Surveillance video from outside the residence showed Shirley’s vehicle there, authorities said. Each piece offered investigators a different type of information: evidence of gunfire, an apparent forced entry and a vehicle connecting the suspect to the location.
The second category involved the juveniles. Three children were inside the home, authorities said. One was awake and reportedly described seeing Shirley point a gun at Mosley after hearing a clicking sound. According to police, that child said Mosley tried to rise from the bed, struck an adjacent dresser and that gunshots followed. The child left the room and went to find a relative. Two other juveniles were asleep when the episode began.
The prosecution’s decision to file two child-endangerment charges makes the juveniles’ presence part of the alleged criminal conduct as well as part of the evidence. Public accounts reviewed for this report do not provide the children’s ages or establish why two counts, rather than three, were filed. Charging decisions depend on the elements prosecutors believe the available facts can support, and the filed counts do not permit assumptions about facts that have not been publicly released.
A third group of allegations concerns the period before Mosley was killed. One witness told investigators that Mosley and Shirley had not been getting along and characterized Shirley as jealous. Mosley had asked him to return her house keys, police said. Another account said Shirley took Mosley’s cellphone on July 30, then returned it along with her keys later that evening. The witness said Shirley came back during the early morning hours and asked to be admitted to the home.
Those allegations may provide context for the burglary charge, especially when considered alongside the damaged bedroom door, but prosecutors have not publicly established every step of Shirley’s alleged entry into the residence. Being in a romantic relationship does not by itself answer whether a person had permission to enter a home at a particular time. The available evidence will have to support the specific elements of the burglary count if prosecutors continue to pursue it.
A fourth line of evidence emerged after Shirley had left the residence. One of his relatives contacted authorities and described a conversation in which Shirley allegedly said he had done something bad. According to the probable cause statement, he said he had “snapped” and shot Mosley. Police also received reports that Shirley twice discussed turning himself in and suggested the entire city would soon be searching for him.
Investigators further allege that Shirley disposed of his cellphone and got rid of a vehicle registered in his name before surrendering. Public reporting does not establish exactly how police confirmed those alleged actions, whether the phone or vehicle was recovered or what forensic evidence, if any, investigators obtained from either. The known charge list does not include a separate offense specifically based on disposal of those items.
Shirley surrendered Aug. 2 at the Kansas City Police Department’s East Patrol Division, according to published reports. A judge later ordered him held on a $500,000 cash-only bond. His surrender allowed the criminal case to move from a search for a suspect to prosecution of a named defendant, with the prosecutor’s office publicly announcing the six charges several days later.
The allegations illustrate the difference between probable cause and proof at trial. At the charging stage, authorities must present sufficient facts to support the accusation and continued legal proceedings. A conviction requires prosecutors to prove the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Eyewitness testimony can be challenged, physical evidence can be disputed or interpreted differently, and alleged admissions can become subjects of motions addressing reliability and admissibility.
The same caution applies to descriptions of jealousy and relationship conflict. Those statements are relevant because investigators included them in reconstructing events before Mosley’s death. They are not themselves proof of the homicide charge, and no reviewed court ruling has established a definitive motive. A criminal case can include evidence about a relationship without turning a witness’s characterization of that relationship into a proven explanation for a killing.
The publicly reported charge of unlawful possession of a firearm adds another issue that is separate from the identity of the shooter. Prosecutors would need to prove the circumstances that made Shirley legally prohibited from possessing a firearm as well as establish the other required elements of that offense. The reviewed reports identify the charge but do not provide enough verified information to explain the particular prior legal status prosecutors rely upon, so that background should not be inferred.
Likewise, the armed criminal action allegation is not simply another name for murder. It is a separate Missouri offense tied to the alleged commission of a felony through use of a dangerous instrument or deadly weapon. Whether prosecutors can sustain that charge depends on proof presented through the case, just as the child-endangerment and burglary allegations require their own factual showings.
Early reports said Shirley was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 2. Because that date has passed, an updated court record would be necessary to state what happened at the hearing or what proceeding comes next. Reliable sources reviewed for this report did not establish a verified outcome from that date or identify a later trial date, and no reviewed source reported a conviction.
For now, the prosecution rests on a mosaic rather than any one piece of evidence: what a child said happened in the bedroom, what police found there, what cameras recorded outside, what witnesses described about the relationship and what Shirley allegedly said after Mosley was shot. A court proceeding, rather than the probable cause narrative, will determine which pieces are admissible and whether together they are sufficient to prove the six charges filed against him.
Author note: Last updated Sept. 20, 2026.