Plea agreement gives details about what led to 2016 triple killing in Harvey County
A plea agreement for a woman associated with a triple murder in rural Harvey County more than a year ago gives the most detailed look so far of how the victims were connected to their killer and why they died.
Myrta Rangel, 33, on Monday pleaded guilty to two federal charges for her role in the October 2016 slayings of 33-year-old Travis Street, 37-year-old Angela Graevs and 52-year-old Richard Prouty. Both of the counts involve her giving a gun to her boyfriend, who allegedly carried out the killings. The boyfriend, 36-year-old Jereme Nelson, is facing capital murder and first-degree murder charges in Harvey County District Court.
Court documents previously filed in Rangel's federal case suggest the slayings were related to drugs.
The trio were found dead on Oct. 30, 2016, outside a home where Street and Graevs lived in a rural area west of Hesston. The couple's toddler son was alive and unharmed inside.
Rangel's plea agreement gives this description of the drug trafficking conspiracy that led to Street's, Graevs' and Prouty's deaths.
Rangel, Nelson and Rangel's estranged husband, who lives in Mexico, had an arrangement to sell methamphetamine that included Street and other people. Rangel's estranged husband, Carlos Lopez, supplied the meth. He had it shipped to Nelson and Street via currier. After the drugs were sold, Rangel would collect the proceeds for Lopez, and the money would be taken back to him.
Early on, Lopez had the meth shipped to Nelson, who would then take it to Street.
But eventually, the shipments bypassed Nelson and went directly to Street. That caused a rift between the men.
On Oct. 29, 2016, Rangel met with Nelson to give him a handgun because she knew he was going to Street's house that night to collect a drug debt.
Nelson drove to Street's home, where he shot Street, Graevs and Prouty each in the head with a .40-caliber gun, the plea agreement says. Graevs was Street's wife. Prouty, a friend, was at the house to buy meth, the document says.
After the shootings, Nelson and Rangel went to Mexico and met with Rangel's estranged husband, the meth supplier. Later, Mexican authorities turned the pair over to American law enforcement, and they were brought back to Kansas to face criminal charges, Rangel's plea agreement says.
Police found Street's, Graevs' and Prouty's bodies in the front yard of the home after a passer-by called 911 shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2016. An AR-15 rifle was on the ground beside Street, and shell casings from a handgun were lying in the driveway, an affidavit released in Nelson's case says.
Rangel is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 19, according to federal court records. She was convicted of transferring a firearm she knew would be used to commit a drug trafficking crime and of giving a firearm to a convicted felon.
Nelson is next due in court Sept. 19 for a pretrial hearing, a court clerk said Tuesday.
This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 5:50 AM.