Cop’s Facebook account helped solve 88-year-old Wichitan’s murder, records say
Floyd Gilbert — the 88-year-old man killed in a robbery gone bad last month — was targeted because thieves believed he had cash and guns in a safe in his south Wichita trailer home, according to records released Friday.
It was Facebook and one alleged robber’s use of a cellphone that helped Wichita police identify and arrest Landon Todd Onek and Austin Lee Stewart on Nov. 30, the records say. Gilbert’s son found him dead in his bathroom at around 8:15 p.m. Nov. 29 after Gilbert didn’t answer phone calls. Gilbert’s home, in the 2200 block of West MacArthur near Meridian, was ransacked and his 1999 Monte Carlo was missing from the driveway when Abner “Corkey” Gilbert showed up to check on his dad.
Stewart, 36, and Onek, 54, are charged with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and two counts of theft in connection with Gilbert’s death. Each is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
A police affidavit released Friday by Sedgwick County District Court says Onek knew of Gilbert because he had been incarcerated with Gilbert’s grandson at one point. The document also gives these details about what led to Onek and Stewart’s arrests:
A Wichita police officer had set up a fake Facebook account and was using it a few days before Gilbert was killed to correspond with a friend of Stewart’s who was wanted on several warrants. After Stewart’s friend was arrested on Nov. 24, Stewart starting using his friend’s cellphone to message the officer on Facebook because he thought the officer was someone he could trust.
Stewart told the officer on Nov. 26 that he was planning to rob a gun collector who “owes me money” who lived at an address off of MacArthur. Stewart told the officer in the messages that he needed someone to drive him there and act as his lookout. The officer agreed to help and stalled Stewart so he could notify his supervisor of the robbery plan and try to get police to the gas station where Stewart was waiting.
But Stewart ended up postponing the robbery because it was too late.
The next day, Nov. 27, the officer received more messages from Stewart, talking about carrying out the robbery. In some of them, Stewart said “I need to get them toys” and “Today I’m ready to go hit it.”
On Nov. 28 after the officer reported for duty, he received additional messages from Stewart. Later, at around 11:30 p.m. that day, Stewart messaged again, asking the officer to help him open a safe. Stewart also wrote that night: “I really messed up now” and “I’m going to hell.” When the officer asked Stewart what happened, Stewart replied, “Ill have to talk in person I’m back at the trailer sick to my stomach.”
Sometime on Nov. 29, the officer learned that Gilbert, a gun collector, had been killed at a trailer home on MacArthur. The officer remembered Stewart talking about robbing an older man who owned guns in that area and went to City Hall to help detectives investigate the homicide.
Police set up surveillance near a house in the 2600 block of South Fees that has ties to Stewart and arrested him early on Nov. 30 as he was leaving. Stewart had several padlocks to Gilbert’s storage sheds, keys to Gilbert’s Monte Carlo and safe, and a photo of Gilbert’s safe on a cellphone he was using.
Police found Onek inside of the house along with some of Gilbert’s property. The property included Veteran’s Affairs paperwork, checks and a set of military dog tags with Gilbert’s name on them.
In a police interview, a woman who lives at the South Fees address said she that overheard Stewart and Onek talking about robbing “an older gentleman who was a veteran, who lives in a trailer and had a safe.” Shortly after that conversation, Onek and Stewart left in a pickup truck, the woman told police.
Later, she told police, she heard them arguing about Onek “running away” and leaving Stewart behind. The woman disclosed that when she talked to Stewart, Stewart told her that “he hit the old man with something and then choked him with his hands and put him into the bathroom” and left him there.
The woman told police that Stewart also told her that when he went back to Gilbert’s house with Onek to break open the safe, Gilbert was dead.
