Slain man didn’t like accused shooter ‘being around his children,’ affidavit says
A telephone tip that helped Wichita police solve a Nov. 17 sports bar slaying that initially stumped investigators came from the father of the man killed, according to an arrest affidavit released Friday.
The affidavit, released by a Sedgwick County judge, says the 70-year-old father of James Storey phoned authorities after seeing news reports where a Wichita police captain put out a public call for information on a black Dodge Ram truck carrying his 51-year-old son’s suspected shooter.
Storey’s father gave police the name of a man he knew drove such a vehicle: William Lee Gray.
Gray, 45, is now facing a charge of first-degree premeditated murder in Storey’s shooting death. Police arrested him Dec. 31.
In response to a request for comment about the allegations, Gray’s defense attorney, Mark Schoenhofer, said:
“As with everyone who stands charged of a crime, these are just allegations, ... and Mr. Gray is presumed innocent.”
Before the father’s tip, police weren’t sure who was responsible for the fatal shooting. Storey was gunned down as he sat in his truck in the parking lot of Southrock Billiards and Sports Bar, 2020 S. Rock Road, on Nov. 17. He’d been playing pool there for several hours prior.
Police have previously said a black Dodge Ram truck was in the lot and left before Storey exited the bar, returned later and briefly parked beside Storey’s truck. Someone inside fired through the passenger window at Storey then sped off at about 6:45 p.m., police have said.
Storey died from a gunshot wound to the head, according to his autopsy report.
During Storey’s father’s phone call, he told a police detective that his son “has had problems in the past” with Gray, who was in a relationship with the mother of Storey’s two kids, the affidavit says.
Storey, his father told the detective, had ongoing “problems and animosity” with Gray and did not like Gray “being around his children” because Gray is a registered sex offender.
Records show Gray spent time in prison for a 1994 rape and aggravated robbery in Reno County.
Storey’s father then gave the detective an address where he knew the Dodge Ram was often parked.
Undercover officers watched the address and saw a black Dodge Ram truck there that had features identical to the one sought in Storey’s death — including a brake light that was out on the rear of the truck’s cabin, the affidavit says.
GPS information from Gray’s cellphone that police obtained through a search warrant showed the phone was in the area of Southrock Billiards and Sports Bar at 4:22 p.m. on Nov. 17 — just over two hours before Storey’s killing — and at 6:21 p.m. — about 25 minutes before the shooting.
It pinged a cell tower in the area of Mt. Vernon and I-135 around six minutes after Storey’s fatal shooting, the affidavit says.
Descriptions of surveillance video and witness statements in the affidavit suggest Storey and Gray may have had a confrontation leading up to the shooting. One video mentioned reportedly shows a man who fits Gray’s physical description having what appears to be a brief, negative-looking exchange with Storey inside of the bar at about 4:25 p.m.
When police talked to the mother of Storey’s children, she told them that Gray — her estranged husband — sent her a text message between 4 and 4:30 p.m. the day of the shooting, asking for Storey’s phone number. When she asked Gray why he wanted it, he told her in a text message that Storey “just got done calling me all kind of (expletives),” the affidavit says.
He did not say where that happened when she asked. Gray told her “he was just going to go home,” the affidavit says.
A bar employee told police that Gray had text messaged her after arriving at Southrock Billiards between 4 and 5 p.m. on Nov. 17, saying that “there was someone in the bar that he did not want to talk to, so he was leaving,” according to the affidavit.
He messaged the bar employee again later, asking if the person he disliked was still there, the affidavit says the employee told police.
Gray is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on $500,000 bond in the murder case. He also has a $100,000 bond for an alleged offender registration act violation, records show. His next court hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 10:59 AM.
