Brandon Smith, who killed Devin Cassidy for gas money, gets 48 years in prison

Like most of this city’s homicides, the robbery-turned-murder of Devin Cassidy in 2008 was sad and senseless.

Cassidy, 24, had met friends for dinner and drinks on a Friday night in Westport. She was in her car, getting ready to go home to Leawood when Brandon Smith and Claude Sterling decided to rob her in a parking lot at 42nd and Pennsylvania. They wanted gas money, and one of the men would later say they believed Cassidy was was an easy mark — she was alone and vulnerable.