Grieving dad says wanted man should have been arrested before fatal Wichita shooting
The father of a Wichita homicide victim is faulting authorities for not arresting the man accused of the killing while he was wanted for an earlier gun-related crime.
A Sedgwick County sheriff’s official said that although he understands why the father is upset, the sheriff’s warrant section has 10 staff members to track down thousands of fugitives.
It is the second Wichita-area homicide in the last month in which victims’ relatives have contended that authorities could have prevented the killings if they had arrested the suspects while they were wanted for earlier crimes.
The first case involves Kristin Florio-Gile, a 33-year-old Wichita woman with six young children. On Oct. 6, her estranged husband chased her down on a Derby street and killed her with multiple gunshots before killing himself. The murder/suicide occurred after Wichita police had an order to arrest him for violating a protective order.
The latest case involves the killing of a 43-year-old Wichita man, Jackie Jerome. On Friday afternoon, prosecutors charged Cory Bentley, 22, with first-degree murder in Jerome’s death and with criminal possession of a weapon by a felon. The charges stem from a shooting Monday at a motel on West Kellogg near Tyler.
Bentley, who had been released on a $25,000 bond in an earlier gun-related case, now remains in jail on a $1 million bond for the murder charge.
Earlier Friday, Jerome’s father, Randi Jerome, said that Bentley had been wanted on a warrant for about 10 days before the shooting. Authorities should have been able to find Bentley during that time, Randi Jerome said.
“If they (authorities) could catch him the day after” the killing, Randi Jerome asked, “why couldn’t they catch him on a felony warrant” issued about 10 days before the killing?
“If they had done their job, my son would be alive today,” he said.
On a Sept. 7 court document, Bentley gave an address in the 4200 block of Whitney, in southeast Wichita. On Wednesday, police seeking him in the homicide case arrested him in the 2000 block of North Porter, on the city’s north side.
Randi Jerome, who lives in Kentucky, said his slain son was his only child. “That hurts so bad … I can never ever have another one. He was my son. I loved him to death, and now I have nothing.”
The Sheriff’s Office is responsible for looking for people wanted on District Court warrants. The Sheriff’s Office said that it had no specific information available Friday on whether it tried to find Bentley before the killing, when he was wanted on a warrant from an earlier criminal case.
The spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Tim Myers, said he empathizes with Randi Jerome. Myers said he understands why Jerome is upset that Bentley wasn’t arrested before his son’s killing.
Still, Myers said, “We try to do the best with what we have.” The sheriff’s warrants section is staffed by 10 deputies. Half of them focus on felony warrants like the one Bentley had, the other half on misdemeanors. Sometimes, the deputies repeatedly look for the same fugitive. The office has received 1,037 warrants this month and has 9,400 active warrants.
Here is the timeline leading up to Monday’s killing and Tuesday’s arrest. The information comes from police accounts, jail records, court documents and the District Attorney’s Office:
▪ Sept 5: Police arrested Bentley in the 500 block of South Hillside on suspicion of several crimes, including criminal possession of a firearm by a felon.
Two days later, prosecutors charged Bentley with six crimes, including possession of weapon by a felon and drug possession. The charges involved him allegedly having methamphetamine and a .40-caliber handgun and a stolen 9mm handgun.
He wrote in a court affidavit that he had been unemployed for eight months after being fired.
▪ Around Sept. 25: Bentley was released on a $25,000 bond.
▪ Oct. 3: Bentley admitted to pretrial services staff that he used meth two days before, on Oct. 1.
▪ Oct. 11: Bentley admitted to pretrial services staff that he again used meth, on Oct. 9.
▪ Oct. 11: Bentley appeared in court and waived a preliminary hearing.
▪ Oct. 12: A judge revoked his bond for violating its conditions, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
▪ Oct. 22: Wichita police responded to a shooting at Delux Inn, 8401 W. Kellogg, at around 4 a.m. Jackie Jerome had multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Investigators determined that after Bentley and others went to the motel, a disturbance broke out between Bentley and Jerome, and Bentley fired a handgun.
▪ Oct. 23: Bentley was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail at around 4:15 p.m.