Levi Elliott was fifteen years old when he fatally shot his twelve year old stepsister. According to court documents Levi Elliott would fatally shoot Sierra Elliott while his father and stepmother were out of town. Levi would leave the home and hitchhike to where his mother lived. Upon arrival she brought him to a police station to turn her son in. According to Levi Elliott someone broke into their home and shot his stepsister. However this teen killer would be convicted of murder and sentenced to thirty years in prison.
Levi Elliott 2023 Information
DOC ID1277847
Offender Name Levi S Elliott
RaceWhite
SexMale
Date of Birth02/10/1997
Height/Weight6’0″ / 165
Hair/EyesBlonde/Strawberry / Blue
Assigned Location Jefferson City Correctional Center
Sentence Summary30 Years (20, 5, 5 CS)
Active OffensesMURDER 2ND DEGREE; ARMED CRIMINAL ACTION; TAMPER WITH MOTOR VEH-1ST DEG
AliasesLevi Scott Adams (LEGAL NAME); Levi Elliott; Levi S Elliott; Levi Scott Elliott
Levi Elliott Other News
Levi Elliott who was 15 when he was accused of killing his younger stepsister has been convicted of second-degree murder.
KYTV reports a jury returned the verdict against 17-year-old Levi Elliott on Wednesday afternoon following a trial that began Monday. He was also convicted of armed criminal action and tampering with a vehicle.
Investigators said Levi Elliott shot 12-year-old Sierra Elliott at their Polk County home west of Bolivar in March 2012 while his father and stepmother were away. He then drove to Clinton and got a ride to Kansas City, where his mother took him to a police station.
Levi Elliott was tried as an adult in Benton County, where the trial was moved because of publicity about the case in Polk County. Sentencing is set for Dec. 19
Levi Elliott More News
It hits Joy Adams at some point every day.
Sometimes when she first wakes up, sometimes when she sees pictures of her son’s friends and sometimes when she runs into people she hasn’t seen for awhile and they casually ask: How’s Levi doing?
“It’s surreal, even after all this time,” Adams said. “There is still, every day, some point where it just hits me again. It is like a tidal wave. You think this can’t really be happening, this can’t really be our life.”
Adams’ son Levi Elliott is in prison.
He was convicted by a jury in October of fatally shooting his 12-year-old half-sister, Sierra, in rural Polk County.
Levi Elliott — now 18 — was 15 at the time of Sierra’s killing. He was tried as an adult and sentenced in January to spend the next 30 years in prison.
Adams left the courthouse in an ambulance after the verdict was returned in her son’s case. She said hearing “guilty” from the jury foreperson left her in a “catatonic state.”
Adams was almost equally shocked a few months later when a judge handed down the 30-year sentence.
“I was speechless,” Adams said. “My son has absolutely no criminal past… We didn’t see that sentence coming.”
Levi’s lawyer, Robert Calbi, said he was expecting a sentence more in the the 15-year range.
Once Adams started to come to terms with the verdict and the sentence, that initial shock was replaced with an intense drive to clear her son’s name.
“It’s fight mode,” Adams said. “I will spend every day of the rest of my life fighting for my son’s innocence.”
Adams was at a karaoke bar with friends on the night of March 24, 2012, when suddenly a warm feeling came over her body and a voice in her head told her to check her phone.
She looked down and saw that she had a dozen missed calls from Peggy Elliott — Sierra’s mother.
“I stepped outside and I called her,” Adams said. “I could not understand what she was saying. She was just — of course — sobbing, incoherent. And I kept saying ‘Peggy, I don’t understand what you are saying to me.’ And she was screaming ‘You do understand, your son shot my daughter in the head, and now she’s dead.’
“And that was the moment that our lives changed.”
Since she picked Levi up in Clinton that night three years ago and heard his account of the shooting, Adams has never wavered in her belief that her son is innocent. The jury’s verdict in October did nothing to sway a mother’s trust.
Levi Elliott’s version of the story goes like this:
•Levi and Sierra were home alone at their father’s house in rural Polk County on March 24, 2012 when an intruder came inside and shot Sierra.
•Levi got in his father’s truck and drove away, toward his mother’s house in Kansas City, as the intruder followed him.
•The intruder eventually changed routes, and Levi — low on gas by then — stopped in Clinton and called his mom to come pick him up.
Prosecutors argued that Levi shot Sierra and then fled the scene in his dad’s truck. The jury agreed.
Peggy Elliott has testified that although Sierra was unable to speak after the shooting, she was able to answer a question about whether Levi shot her by raising her hand to indicate a “yes” answer.
A small-caliber bullet was recovered from the girl’s head and was consistent with the bullets located inside the residence, a probable cause statement says.
Adams brought Levi to the police station in Kansas City that night back in 2012, and she said everything that happened next has left her disillusioned with the criminal justice system.
“It has completely changed the way that I see our police force, our judicial system, the courts,” Adams said. “It took the trust that I once had, and it shattered it.”
Adams said she and her lawyer are working toward appealing the verdict in Levi’s case. For now, however, she is trying to make the most of a tough situation
When Levi was first transported to prison after the trial, he was taken to Farmington Correctional Center, south of St. Louis.
Adams would make the five-hour drive to see her son every Saturday. And they would visit for a couple of hours as Levi sat in a caged room.
“I put on a face while I am in there,” Adams said. “And then I cry when I leave.”
About two months ago, Levi was transferred to Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron — about an hour away from Adams’ home in northern Kansas City.
Now Adams can have four-hour “contact” visits with her son every Saturday where they talk and play cards. She said he is in a better situation, but it still breaks her heart to see him in jail.
Adams said Levi is stoic during their visits and he does his best to shield her from any negative emotions.
But she worries.
Adams said she feels guilty going out to eat or doing something fun out of fear that Levi will feel like he is being forgotten.
Levi’s case consumes Adams, but for a long time she had a place to go during the day to get away from the legal troubles. Adams said she kept her personal struggles separate from her work at a doctor’s office in Kansas City for as long as she could, but eventually co-workers started seeing her son’s mugshot on the news.
Adams said one day she called a meeting before work and spilled everything to her co-workers.
“I just really didn’t want to delve into it,” Adams said. “I think more than anything I didn’t want pity. I didn’t want people to look at me and treat me differently than they had for 10 years.”
Adams said her only goal now is to make sure her son has a future.
“If I can’t get this turned around, he will never have a wife, he will never have children, he will never know the love that we are intended to know,” Adams said. “It breaks my heart.”
Adams said her heart also breaks for Sierra, and she can’t imagine how tough the past three years have been on her ex-husband James and his wife Peggy — Sierra’s parents.
Adams said Sierra’s death and Levi’s conviction have shaken her faith in God, and split her family
Prior to the shooting, Adams had virtually no relationship with her daughter, Ashley Elliott.
Over the past three years, however, Adams and Ashley have grown closer. Adams frequently helps care for Ashley’s young daughter.
Ashley — who also believes Levi is innocent — said she now has no contact with her father or anyone on that side of her family.
“The first time I got the call, it was ‘Your sister has been shot, your brother is missing,'”Ashley said. “I thought it was a joke… It was very surreal. It was like your entire world stops in five minutes and everything around you keeps moving.”
Ashley said she has gone to visit Levi frequently over the last few months, and he beams when he gets to hold his niece. Ashley just wishes Levi got to be an uncle for more than four hours per week.
Adams said even after 18 years and a murder trial, she still sees Levi as a kid.
She said she can barely breathe — when that moment hits her each day and she realizes her son is facing 30 years in prison.
Levi’s lawyer said he is in contact with Adams on a regular basis and he has been impressed with her drive.
“She is a mom that believes her child has been wronged and is doing everything in her power to see that changed,” Calbi said. “Her resolve has been as strong today as when this whole thing started.”
Adams said she would switch places with Levi in a heartbeat. But for now all she can do is fight for her son.
“He is my youngest,” Adams said. “He has always been my baby.”
Levi Elliott FAQ
Levi Elliott Now
Levi Elliott is currently incarcerated at the Jefferson City Correctional Center
Levi Elliott Release Date
Levi Elliott is scheduled for release in 2044
