You heard their stories on ‘Lockup: Wichita,’ but where are they now?
If you were caught up in the behind-bars drama of “Lockup: Wichita, KS Extended Stay,” you may be wondering what happened to some of the inmates.
The five-episode show was brimming with interesting characters. There was a double-amputee gang member. A meth-addicted former detention deputy. A swinger who killed his wife. A food hoarder. And a drug dealer who tried to jump off a jail balcony.
At the end of every episode, “Lockup” noted the progress in the featured inmates’ cases. By the time the show aired in January and February, some had resolved. But others were still pending — including that of a man accused of murder also created breathtaking art.
Here’s what happened to the inmates who had major roles on the show. They’re listed by episode.
Episode 1: Defending Bacon
Antonio Bell: The focus of much of the season’s opening episode focused on Bell, a father of two who spent half of his life in gangs and was first jailed at age 10. He is best remembered on the show for a brutal jailhouse brawl that left a fellow inmate beaten and bloodied. At the time of filming, Bell was in jail awaiting trial on a second-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting a friend and leaving his body in a ditch north of Wichita in 2013.
But he never had his day in court in the murder case.
In January 2016, the 24-year-old died alone in his jail cell from an asthma attack. In a letter to The Eagle before his death, Bell denied involvement in his friend’s killing.
Antonio Cooper: He ended up in the “Lockup” spotlight because he’s the inmate who was beaten and bloodied by Bell, who left him needing four stitches. You might remember that Cooper, then serving a 12-month sentence for domestic violence, didn’t want to press charges against Bell so he wouldn’t be labeled a snitch.
Cooper, who’d been studying to be a medical technician and was an expectant father at the time of “Lockup” filming, eventually got out of jail. But his freedom was short-lived.
Now 25, he is back in jail awaiting trial on allegations he committed more domestic violence and assaulted a jail deputy in December. He also has been convicted of aggravated battery, landing him on probation for three years.
Scot Bacon: At the time of “Lockup” filming, Bacon was in jail for twice taking a troubled 17-year-old girl he says he was trying to help out of an abusive situation to a South Broadway motel, where she sold sex. Accused of being her pimp, Bacon insisted he took the girl to the motel only because that’s where she wanted to go and that he stayed to protect her from harm. Jurors ended up acquitting him of one count of commercial exploitation of a child but convicted him of a second count, leading to an eight-year prison sentence.
Bacon appealed the outcome, arguing, among other issues, that the defense attorney he hired to take over his case a few days before his trial should have been given more time to prepare for it. But that, too, was met with rejection.
In a written decision handed down earlier this month, the Kansas Court of Appeals rebuffed Bacon’s arguments and upheld his conviction. He is serving his time at the prison in Norton and can be released as early as December 2023.
Episode 2: The Lifestyle
Marquel Dean: Regarded as one of Wichita’s most notorious gang leaders, Dean spent much of his “Lockup” screen time saying he’d disavowed the gang lifestyle thanks to a “revelation of God’s majesty.” Dean, who was often seen leading his fellow inmates in prayer, was in the Sedgwick County Jail over allegations he killed a man named James Gary at a Wichita warehouse party in 2013. He was in prison serving 20 years for other crimes when he was charged with the murder and says he’s innocent of it.
Jurors eventually convicted Dean, and he was ordered to serve a life sentence plus 21 years in the case. Now 31, he’s housed at one of the prisons in Hutchinson.
Rogelio Soto: Nicknamed “Trouble,” Soto once wanted to be an accountant but got caught up in a lifestyle that landed him in jail on a murder charge at age 16. At the time “Lockup” was filmed, Soto had already been sent to prison for 50 years to life for allegedly stabbing a rival gang member 79 times. But he was back in the Sedgwick County Jail awaiting re-sentencing in the case after the punishment was voided in response a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Soto, who says he’s innocent, grabbed the “Lockup” spotlight after he threw a cup of hot coffee at another inmate’s face, then beat him. He later was accompanied by a senior Surenos gang member to his interviews with the “Lockup” crew and was told what to say when asked about the fight.
Soto eventually got a shorter prison sentence – 25 years to life – in the murder case after prosecutors ended their quest for a second 50-to-life term. Now 24, he’s still incarcerated in Wichita, waiting for two other cases to resolve. One accuses him of having a shank in the jail. He’s charged with attacking and intimidating a witness in the other case.
Donnell Hill: Bloods gang member Hill was the inmate left partially blind and with second-degree burns when Soto threw the hot coffee in his face. You may remember Hill shrugging off the attack simply as part of the gang lifestyle and refusing to press charges.
Hill, now 24, eventually landed in prison for violating the terms of his probation in an earlier burglary and theft case, tampering with an electronic monitoring device and not returning to a community corrections center as ordered. He’s currently housed at the prison in El Dorado and could get out as early as December.
Jeremy Honeycutt: Honeycutt was the wheelchair-bound double amputee involved in a bathroom fight in “Lockup’s” second episode. He lost his legs after he was hit by a train at age 6. But the disability didn’t keep him from seeking out gang life later on.
Honeycutt, who told the show he had 15 children and wanted to be a paralegal, had already spent 17 years in prison at the time of filming. He was ordered to serve two more years after pleading guilty in a pair of theft cases early last year. After his release from prison and until a few weeks ago, the 36-year-old was living at an address in Wichita.
Now he’s back in the Sedgwick County Jail. Last week, prosecutors charged him with criminal possession of a weapon after a police officer allegedly caught him with two fixed-blade knives during a June 13 traffic stop in Wichita.
Episode 3: On Broadway
Jason Galliart: A tattoo-covered skinhead and self-described separatist, Galliart was in the Sedgwick County Jail in 2015 over an attack on his girlfriend that left her with two black eyes. Prosecutors charged Galliart with aggravated battery after she told police he’d held a knife to her throat. Galliart denied the claim, telling cameras his girlfriend had lied about the knife. She, however, told “Lockup” the story was true.
Galliart, who said on the show he prefers prison life to freedom, was convicted last year of one count of criminal threat, one count of criminal restraint and 10 counts of violating a protective order. A judge ordered him to serve 17 months in prison plus another 11 years in the Sedgwick County Jail, where he remains. The 38-year-old is appealing the outcome of his case.
Vegas Walker: Broadway drug dealer Walker was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail in 2015 after she stabbed a man with a butcher knife during a street confrontation. She ended up pleading guilty to aggravated battery to keep prosecutors from amending the charge to attempted murder and was sentenced to a little more than 5 1/2 years in prison. She got another 14 months after an attack at the jail.
Soft-spoken and sweet during interviews, Walker is probably best remembered on “Lockup” for trying to leap off a second-floor mezzanine after a fight with another inmate. That led jail staff to place her on suicide watch. She also had a negative reaction when her sentence in the case was handed down: She refused to return to her cell and started trashing a community area in the jail.
Now 22, she’s housed at the women’s prison in Topeka. She could get out as early as January 2021.
Episode 4: Citizen’s Arrest
Manda Lynch: Former Sumner County detention deputy Lynch ended up in jail herself after pulling off a string of crimes to support her methamphetamine addiction. Her story turned into something of a jailhouse soap opera when she reconnected and got cozy with her old drug dealer, to the displeasure of her girlfriend, who was seven months’ pregnant and also battling drug abuse. Eventually Lynch opted to distance herself from the budding romance in hopes of raising her girlfriend’s baby.
“Lockup” notes at the end of the episode that Lynch was ordered to serve 10 months in prison for violating her probation in previous cases. During the show, she was in jail waiting for that decision. Currently, the 32-year-old is serving her sentence at the Topeka prison and is due to be released in September.
The baby, a boy, was given up for adoption, according to the show. It’s unknown whether Lynch and her girlfriend are still together.
Jenifer Wood: Drug dealer Wood was part of the “Lockup” love triangle involving Lynch and Lynch’s girlfriend. When Wood was in the Sedgwick County Jail during filming, the mother and former pharmacy technician was awaiting resolution of theft and meth distribution cases. Eventually she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 56 months in prison.
Like Lynch, the 29-year-old is serving out the term in the women’s prison in Topeka. Her earliest possible release date is in December 2018, prison records show.
Samuel Wesson: A subplot on “Lockup’s” Episode 4 told the tale of Samuel Wesson, whom jail security cameras caught sneaking behind a desk and stealing a can of chewing tobacco from a deputy’s bag. Wesson, in an interview, admitted to being a serial shoplifter. At the time, the tobacco theft was the latest in a string of capers he’d been caught in.
Prosecutors ended up charging Wesson with stealing the deputy’s tobacco and trafficking contraband into the jail. The trafficking charge was later dismissed when he pleaded guilty to theft.
Wesson, 44, served prison time for his cases and was paroled in May. He’s living in Sedgwick County, according to prison records.
John Delaney: The “Lockup” spotlight shined on Delaney after he landed in jail over a threat he allegedly made against the Sedgwick County sheriff. Delaney had a tense encounter with deputies who wouldn’t let him pick up his girlfriend’s children from school, filmed it and posted it to YouTube. Later he contacted local media outlets, claiming mistreatment; a reporter notified authorities after hearing him allegedly speak of guns and taking the sheriff out of office.
Prosecutors charged Delaney with criminal threat. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment, court records show.
“Lockup” noted at the close of Episode 4 that Delaney ended up with a 39-month prison sentence for failing to register as a sex offender in Reno County. He remains in the Sedgwick County Jail waiting for other criminal cases to resolve.
Episode 5: The Keeper
Pierre Ross Washington: A swinger relationship led Washington to fatally shoot his wife in a Wichita park in 2015. On “Lockup,” Washington explained that he and his wife of seven years, Diana Washington, decided to try to salvage their troubled marriage by inviting another couple into the bedroom. But the arrangement soured when 26-year-old Diana became too close romantically to the other man, and Washington fired at her seven times while she was on the phone with her new boyfriend.
As “Lockup” notes in the episode, Washington pleaded guilty to murdering his wife and was given life in prison. Now 31, he’s serving the sentence in the prison in El Dorado and will be eligible for parole in 2040.
Luis Alvarado-Meraz: Alvarado-Meraz remains in the Sedgwick County Jail to this day. He’s charged with capital murder – a death-penalty-eligible crime in Kansas – in the January 2015 shooting deaths of his twin brother and his sister-in-law. When his father found the bodies, they were riddled with bullets fired from an AK-47.
But on “Lockup,” there is no hint of violence from the soft-spoken 27-year-old.
He refused to talk about the killings on the show, choosing instead to focus on his artwork. He told the cameras his dreams and imagination inspire his intricate drawings, which he creates using the rubber pencils that are allowed in the jail. (Regular pencils, pens, markers and other writing instruments are banned.) And he said he couldn’t wait to get to prison so he would have access to better art supplies.
Alvarado-Meraz had a trial scheduled for September, but that has been postponed. A new date hadn’t been set as of Friday. He’s due in court again on July 6 so attorneys can continue crafting questionnaires for potential jurors called in the case.
Adrian Zongker: Zongker was the inmate who was obsessed with and hoarded jailhouse food. Zongker, who has Asperger’s syndrome, got into trouble for taking plastic food trays, because they could be used as weapons, and for stealing more grub than what he was allowed per day.
The 22-year-old eventually was sentenced to 10 months for aggravated assault and battery. He’s currently in the prison in Larned and is due to be released in August.
Amy Renee Leiker: 316-268-6644, @amyreneeleiker
This story was originally published June 26, 2017 at 7:05 AM with the headline "You heard their stories on ‘Lockup: Wichita,’ but where are they now?."