Suspect in Wichita State student’s death sent back to prison on parole violation

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story listed the wrong date of Rayan Ibrahim Baba's homicide. He was killed Aug. 8.

A man suspected in the Aug. 8 killing of a Wichita State University student is back in prison on a parole violation.

Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman Adam Pfannenstiel said Isaiah Copridge will spend at least 90 days – and up to 180 days – at Hutchinson Correctional Facility after admitting to a parole officer that he used marijuana on Aug. 7.

Copridge, 23, and 19-year-old Eboni Fingal were jailed on Aug. 10 on suspicion of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rayan Ibrahim Baba in the parking lot of WSU residence hall Fairmount Towers, 2221 N. Hillside.

Neither has been charged in the homicide.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said last month that he asked police for further investigation after discussing the case with law enforcement and reviewing evidence. His spokeswoman, Georgia Cole, said Tuesday the investigation into the homicide is ongoing.

Pfannenstiel said the corrections department sent Copridge back to prison on Aug. 26 over the marijuana use. He said Copridge was in custody at the Sedgwick County Jail when he told his parole officer on Aug. 14 that he had used the drug.

His arrest in the shooting investigation prompted the corrections department to issue the warrant in the parole violation. Copridge was on parole for a 2010 child abuse conviction.

Pfannenstiel said a 180-day sanction is required by statute for this and similar parole violations but that Copridge could shave as many as 90 days off his time if he follows the rules in prison.

When the sanction is over, he will be released either back into the community or into law enforcement custody if he ends up being charged in Baba’s homicide, Pfannenstiel said.

Fingal is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail in lieu of a total of $51,000 on probation violations and municipal court cases, according to online inmate records.

Baba, a Saudi undergraduate student majoring in electrical engineering at WSU, was found with multiple gunshot wounds at about 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 8. Authorities have said Baba knew Copridge and Fingal and made arrangements to meet them at Fairmount Towers, where he lived.

WSU police chief Sara Morris has said Baba was not enrolled for the fall semester and was preparing to move out of the dorm when he was shot.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Suspect in Wichita State student’s death sent back to prison on parole violation."