Eric DeValkenaere surrenders at KC-area jail after losing appeal in Black man’s killing

A former Kansas City police detective convicted in the shooting death of a Black man was booked into the Platte County jail Tuesday afternoon after losing his appeal.

Eric DeValkenaere had been ordered into custody immediately after a three-judge panel at the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, upheld his conviction in the 2019 shooting death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb.

DeValkenaere, who is white, had been found guilty at trial in Jackson County in 2021 on charges of second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Sentenced to six years in prison, he remained free on bond while he appealed his conviction.

On Tuesday, an arrest warrant issued after the court released its ruling was sent to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, the Jackson County Marshal of Missouri Court of Appeals Western District and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

Maj. Erik Holland of the Platte County Sheriff’s Office said DeValkenaere walked into the county jail in Platte City and surrendered to authorities. DeValkenaere was booked, his mugshot was taken and he was being held in custody there until he is transferred to a Missouri prison.

“We are holding him in our facility and holding him under the warrant that was issued by the (Court of Appeals) Western District,” Holland told The Star.

DeValkenaere was booked into the county jail just before noon and placed into protective custody, according to county jail records.

The arrest warrant required authorities to take DeValkenaere into custody and deliver him to a Missouri prison where he will begin serving his sentence, according to an order signed by Chief Appeals Judge Gary D. Witt.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Dale Youngs sentenced DeValkenaere March 7, 2022. DeValkenaere will not appear again in court before being transported a Missouri prison.

It did not appear Tuesday that DeValkenaere had been assigned to a specific prison, according to Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Once in the custody of the department of corrections, DeValkenaerre would be assigned to one of the system’s three reception and diagnostic centers for men in St. Jospeh, Bonne Terre or Fulton, Pojmann said.