Wichita man who stabbed roommate to death after cops suggested eviction is sentenced
A Wichita man who stabbed his roommate to death as police officers stood outside his home has been ordered to serve life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years, court records show.
Jason Leigh McCaleb attacked 28-year-old Devin Andrea Cook up to 50 times with a knife on Nov. 23, 2019, in the moments after Wichita police suggested he evict her if he wanted her gone from his house. Although officers had left the home after talking to McCaleb, they were still near enough to hear Cook’s cries for help as he killed her.
Police went to McCaleb’s home earlier that morning after he called 911 because Cook refused to leave, authorities have previously said. But the officers told McCaleb they couldn’t force Cook to go without a court order because she had “established residency there.”
A doctor noted up to fifty “sharp force injuries” on her body during an autopsy examination.
Officers knocked on the locked door as the attack happened, but McCaleb didn’t open it because he “did not want them to stop him from killing” Cook, an affidavit said McCaleb admitted in a police interview following his arrest.
McCaleb, 45, pleaded guilty to first-degree premeditated murder on July 24. In Kansas, the charge carries a presumptive sentence of life without parole eligibility for 50 years. But lawyers urged the judge to allow McCaleb to seek parole in half that time in part because he has a history of mental illness, according to court records.
Sedgwick County Judge Jeff Syrios imposed the recommended sentence last week.
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 11:06 AM.
