On Tuesday, Denham, 30, was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of armed criminal action and several other crimes by a Platte County jury.
The jury deliberated for two hours, after which they also found Denham guilty of second-degree arson for setting fire to his family’s home, animal abuse for shooting the family dog, and stealing his grandmother’s car and driving to Arizona, according to The Kansas City Star.
The burned bodies of Denham’s grandparents, Russell Denham, 82, and Shirley Denham, 81, along with those of his sister, 32-year-old Heather Ager, and Ager’s 3-month-old son, Mason Schiavoni, were found outside a residence close to Edgerton, Missouri, on February 19, 2016. Investigators said they had been shot to death in the head, some multiple times, The Kansas City Star reported.
Prosecutors alleged that after Denham murdered the victims, he torched the home they shared, The Associated Press reported. Authorities later located Denham walking naked in Arizona on February 21, 2016, two days after the bodies had been found.
“This is a devastating thing to happen to a family and happen to a community. Our goal has been and will continue to be to do justice for everyone involved in this case,” Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said during a news conference after a grand jury handed down Denham’s indictment, according to the AP.
Denham has previously had his driver’s license revoked due to traffic infractions and child support issues, the AP reported. Denham had also been sentenced in Johnson County, Missouri, in January 2016 to two years of probation and 20 hours of community service for a misdemeanor assault charge, online court records show.
Denham’s case faced multiple delays, including in 2020 when he was deemed not mentally fit to stand trial. The court later found him restored to competency, allowing the trial to proceed.
Denham faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he’s sentenced on February 25.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
