Family of accused sex offender express shock, sorrow

The family of the sex offender recently released from prison and now charged with attempted capital murder in the June 11 attack on a 7-year-old girl at a Wichita condo has issued a statement expressing “utter shock and disbelief” and “sorrow and grief for the victim and her family.”

The statement was left Tuesday night on the voicemail of an Eagle reporter six hours after Corbin Breitenbach was in court to hear the charges against him: attempted capital murder, aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated burglary. Breitenbach, 23, remains in jail on a $1 million bond.

The full statement on the recording reads: “This statement is from the family of Corbin Breitenbach. Our family is in utter shock and disbelief. It is impossible to communicate the depth of our sorrow and the grief we feel for the victim and her family. We respectfully ask to be allowed time to process this. And at this point we have no further comment. Our thoughts and prayers are for this young girl and that she and her family will fully recover. – Family of Corbin Breitenbach.”

A tearful woman who answered the phone number with the voicemail identified herself as Breitenbach’s mother.

The attempted capital murder charge alleges that Breitenbach took the girl from a bedroom, strangled her to unconsciousness, brought her to an outdoor balcony and had sexual intercourse.

The victim and defendant didn’t know each other, District Attorney Marc Bennett has said. She was spending the night at the apartment with another child, according to a recording of emergency radio traffic.

The crimes occurred around 2:40 a.m. on June 11 in a second-floor apartment in the 1400 block of North Smith Court, near 13th and Zoo. The condo where the girl was attacked is directly across a small courtyard from where Breitenbach’s girlfriend lives.

According to the sex offender registry, Breitenbach was living at a Derby address. His girlfriend told The Eagle that he was in bed with her at her west Wichita apartment the morning of the attack.

On an affidavit filed with the court in the new criminal case against him, Breitenbach said that he lives with his mother and grandmother.

Police have said the suspect came into the apartment where the girl was – without forcing entry and without permission – assaulted her and left. The child was heard yelling that she had been attacked, according to emergency radio traffic.

Bennett said Tuesday that the girl is doing “better” and has been out of the hospital for days.

Breitenbach was released from prison on parole on April 28 and is on the state sexual offender registry. He was in prison after being convicted of a 2012 sexual assault of a 22-year-old woman who also was strangled and left unconscious during the attack, her fiance has told The Eagle.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Family of accused sex offender express shock, sorrow."