A Kansas City man was sentenced to 360 months, or 30 years in federal prison, after being convicted of cyberstalking resulting in death.

Michael Smith, who is also known as “Black Mike, ”39, was sentenced Tuesday, May 19, for his role in the murder-for-hire scheme, which left one individual dead outside a Kansas City grocery store parking lot in 2019, reports The Kansas City Star. 

In addition to his 30-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark also imposed a consecutive four-year sentence for a prior $1.1 million insurance fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri said. 

On February 11, 2026, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking resulting in death. In his plea, the defendant admitted that he was hired to kill 40-year-old Dontayus Wiles in late January or early February 2019, the outlet reported. 

Smith worked with two co-conspirators, Dontay Campbell and Lawrence Courtney Lawhorn. They got their hands on a GPS tracking device, which they placed under the victim’s red Chevrolet Tahoe on March 5, 2019, according to a November 2023 DOJ press release. 

Over the next few days, Smith tracked the victim using the GPS device in his vehicle. He also used the tracking device to locate the victim physically. 

On March 16, 2019, Smith tracked the GPS device on the victim’s car to the grocery store called Wild Woody’s Happy Foods in the Ingleside neighborhood of Kansas City. 

When the victim walked out of the grocery store and approached his car, co-conspirators Campbell and Lawhorn pulled up next to his vehicle in a Chrysler Sebring, the press release stated. Lawhorn then shot at the victim multiple times with a Sturm, Ruger & Co. .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, while Campbell tried to retrieve the GPS tracking device from the victim’s car, but was unable to. The co-conspirators then fled the scene and returned to the scene of the crime again after driving around the parking lot. Lawhorn fired more shots at the victim while Campbell yet again tried to remove the GPS tracker from the Tahoe. This time, too, he was unsuccessful.

The pair then fled the scene in their Sebring. Soon, the Kansas City Police arrived at the grocery store parking lot and found the victim in an injured state. They took him to a nearby area hospital, but he could not survive the gunshot wounds. The defendant, Smith, received payment in cash for the murder of Dontayus Wiles.

Smith’s co-defendant, Dontay Campbell, also pleaded guilty to similar charges and is currently awaiting his sentencing. Lawrence Courtney Lawhorn was indicted on cyberstalking, conspiracy, and felon-in-possession charges as the alleged shooter. The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a DOJ initiative targeting violent crime and transnational criminal organizations.