Kansas City, Kansas, man sentenced in father’s death, woman’s stabbing

A Kansas City, Kansas, man was sentenced to just under 14 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of his father and a knife attack on a woman in July 2023.

John McGriff, 33, was charged last year with second-degree murder and aggravated battery after allegedly stabbing his father, 72-year-old Samuel McGriff, in the senior care apartment the two shared. John McGriff was also initially charged with mistreatment of an elder and aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer before an Aug. 23 plea deal.

A Wyandotte County judge sentenced McGriff to 166 months in prison Wednesday, according to court documents, with just over a decade of the sentence stemming from the murder charge.

Kansas City, Kansas, police responded to 911 calls reporting a stabbing at 34th Street and Metropolitan Avenue around 11:47 a.m. on July 18, 2023. Upon arrival, officers discovered a woman, later identified as Stephanie Perez, with multiple stab wounds , then found John McGriff nearby.

John McGriff had allegedly stabbed his father to death in their apartment in the 3700 block of Strong Avenue minutes before turning his knife on a random passer-by on the street. Perez had been walking home from volunteering at the food pantry at Immanuel Lutheran Church just before the attack.

Two KCK police officers shot John McGriff multiple times after he charged at them with the knife, according to KCK police and court documents.

After John McGriff and Perez were taken to the hospital in critical condition, an employee of the senior care home where the McGriffs lived told police she had found Samuel McGriff bleeding on the floor during a wellness check. Samuel McGriff was pronounced dead at the scene.

Perez, now 47, suffered severe wounds to the face, neck and hands , according to a fundraiser set up by relatives after the attack.

The first round of charges against John McGriff were brought by Wyandotte County prosecutors while he was in critical condition in a Kansas City-area hospital. McGriff will not be eligible for parole, according to court records.

Previous reporting by Bill Lukitsch and Matti Gellman was used in this article.