Father of missing baby to spend year in jail on probation violation

The father of a missing Wichita infant will spend a year in jail for violating his probation in a 2014 battery case involving the boy’s mother.

Gary McKensey Moore Jr., in a court hearing Wednesday afternoon, admitted he ignored a no-contact order with Michelle Mendez when he married her in February, didn’t pay court costs as ordered, cut off his GPS tracking device and failed to report to his probation officer.

The admissions prompted Sedgwick County District Court Judge David Dahl to revoke his probation, which he was placed on in October.

He will now serve the underlying jail term imposed in the misdemeanor battery case.

Moore offered explanations to the judge for some of the violations: He said he wed Mendez to try to create a family environment for now-5-month-old Vincent Moore, who went missing on July 11, and the infant’s siblings, and that he removed his GPS device to escape threats allegedly directed toward his children.

But his probation officer, Kami Dobbs, told Dahl she could not “in good faith do anything but recommend revocation on this case.” She characterized Moore as a flight risk who has said he would leave the state if released.

Moore was arrested and jailed on July 29 on warrants related to the battery case after Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputies stopped his car in the 5500 block of West 21st Street. Authorities found Moore’s 2-year-old child in the car with him, but not Vincent.

Police have said Mendez dropped the children off with Moore on or around June 5 for their visitation but couldn’t reach him after a few days. Vincent was last seen leaving a house near 31st Street South and Hydraulic with his father on July 11.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

Moore is facing a Sept. 10 preliminary hearing on a felony charge of tampering with electronic monitoring equipment for cutting off the GPS tracking device.

He has not been charged in Vincent’s disappearance.

This story was originally published August 26, 2015 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Father of missing baby to spend year in jail on probation violation."