Man gets more than 27 years in couple’s murder

One of two men convicted of killing a couple in their south Wichita home during a robbery in 2014 was ordered Tuesday to spend more than 27 years in prison.

Carlos Delacadena-Edwards, 19, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree intentional murder and one count of aggravated robbery for standing by while his cousin gunned down Martha and Godofredo Moreno at 642 S. Ida.

Delacadena-Edwards said during his sentencing hearing Tuesday that Steven Wade Edwards II forced him under threat of harm to go to the home to collect a debt from the couple’s son on Oct. 16, 2014.

But Sedgwick County District Court Judge Jeffrey Goering said Delacadena-Edwards’ guilty plea was an admission of culpability that warranted the 331-month sentence negotiated by his defense attorney and prosecutors handling the case.

“It seems to me that the guilty plea puts to rest any consideration that there was some (sort) of compulsion or forced participation in the crime,” Goering said. “If that was the defense, then the case should have progressed to trial.”

Because Delacadena-Edwards was 17 at the time of the shootings, he originally was charged in juvenile court. The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office later argued and won the chance to prosecute him as an adult on two counts of first-degree felony murder and one count of aggravated robbery.

Delacadena-Edwards over the summer had tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his guilty plea. Edwards, 22, has also petitioned the court to withdraw his guilty plea to two counts of first-degree felony murder and other crimes. That matter is pending.

On Tuesday, Delacadena-Edwards apologized to members of the Moreno family sitting in the courtroom but said 27 1/2 years in prison was “too harsh” for his level of involvement, which included standing guard with a BB gun while the Morenos were fatally shot, stealing the couple’s car and cellphone and lying to police.

“I’m not mentally, physically or emotionally capable of killing anyone,” he said, adding that he needs a chance to change his life – plans that include graduating from high school and pursuing a college degree – “but I can’t do that by being put in a place with more serious and more real criminals.”

Members of the Moreno family, meanwhile, told the judge the couple’s murders left a gaping wound in their lives that couldn’t be healed.

The couple, they said, were hardworking, proud people who were well-known in the community and beloved by family. Their deaths “should have been in God’s hands” rather than ended prematurely by armed robbers and killers, the wife of the Morenos’ older son said in court.

“Their last moments in life were in confusion, terror, panic and horror,” said the daughter-in-law, who asked not to be identified because of safety concerns.

“We have all been robbed of Martha and Godofredo,” she said. “Our family will never be able to understand or comprehend why this happened.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Man gets more than 27 years in couple’s murder."