TOPEKA — A Kansan without medical credentials serving a 69-month federal prison sentence for fraud tied to illegally providing autopsy services was ordered to also complete a one-year sentence in county jail for engaging in criminal desecration of bodies, the state attorney general said Wednesday.
Shawn Parcells, who didn’t earn a degree or hold credentials in medicine or pathology, gained national attention in 2014 by assisting, on behalf of the family of the deceased, in an autopsy of Michael Brown. He was a Black teenager killed by a police officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri. The slaying prompted protests about use of force by law enforcement officers.
In the course of the Kansas’ civil investigation and litigation of Parcells, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment secured more than 1,700 biological samples that he had collected.
Parcells, incarcerated at the U.S. penitentiary in Leavenworth, was ordered by Wabaunsee County District Court Judge Jeffrey Elder to report to the county jail after expiration of his federal sentence in January 2027. He was sentenced by Elder to 12 months in jail for misdemeanor criminal desecration and 12 months probation for felony theft.
In September, the 43-year-old Parcells was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison by a U.S. District Court judge for the felony wire fraud convictions.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said Parcells was convicted on the state charges in 2021 following a...
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