Wichita homeowner who shot woman after string of burglaries sentenced in case

A Wichita man who shot a woman after finding a group of intruders in his home has been sentenced in connection to the case, court records show.

Christopher Meece found the then 50-year-old woman and at least two men inside of the home, but it’s unclear if the single shot he fired from a Taurus .40-caliber handgun hit the woman while she was still inside the west Wichita house.

Meece was trying to sell the home, where there had been four recent burglaries, when the 2019 shooting happened.

Meece, who is in his mid-40s, was originally charged with felony aggravated battery in connection to the Oct. 29, 2019, shooting. As part of last week’s guilty plea, the charges were downgraded to misdemeanor charges — four counts of battery and one count of criminal discharge of a firearm, records show.

Following the plea, he was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay nearly $44,000 in restitution, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. The restitution could be for the victim, who was shot in the lower back. During surgery, doctors discovered the bullet damaged her left kidney, liver and gallbladder, a Wichita police detective wrote in a court document.

Meece’s attorney did not wish to comment on the sentencing.

Meece had reported burglaries at the home in the 400 block of South Garst, which is just south of Maple between Ridge and the Big Ditch, on Oct. 21, Oct. 25, Oct. 26 and Oct. 27 before the Oct. 29 shooting, according to court records.

“On one of the occasions he found someone had been in the house and left behind sex toys, phone chargers and a large knife,” the detective wrote.

Because of the string of burglaries, Meece went to check on the house at around 4 p.m. the day of the shooting, police said.

Here’s what the detective wrote happened next:

The glass was broken on the back door, but Meece did not know if it was from a new break-in or if the wind had blown open the unsecured door.

He took two steps inside and saw “several males, and at least one female, running and yelling.”

He lifted the gun and fired one round.

“He said he was not aiming at any one person and it was more of a warning shot to let them know he was armed,” the detective wrote, adding Meece wasn’t sure if they were inside or if he was seeing them through the front window.

He went to look and “saw a blond haired female on the ground,” the detective wrote. “The female asked him why he shot them.”

Meece pointed his gun at the woman, yelled at her to stay on the ground, and dialed 911. While on the phone, he saw the woman get up and walk to a white Ford Focus and he gave the 911 operator the tag number.

An officer found the vehicle at the Lost Sock Laundromat at Seneca and McCormick. The woman was in the driver’s seat.

The officer ordered her out of the car at gunpoint. When she got out of the car, she told the officer she had been shot.

EMS was called and took her to Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, where she underwent surgery.

“The doctor discovered the bullet was close to her spine and did not elect to remove it,” the detective wrote.

No stolen property was found inside the car.

At the home, investigating officers found a shell casing about 2 feet inside the back door, and “a defect to the outside of the wall of the front of the house indicating the bullet traveled through the house and exited through the west wall,” the detective wrote.

A detective interviewed the woman at the hospital a few days after she was shot.

She said she had been looking for a fixer-upper for several months. On the day of the shooting, a friend called her and told her he knew of a home for her to look at.

She picked up the friend, whose last name she didn’t know, and another man who she thought was a realtor. She didn’t remember where she picked them up.

She told the detective that they were inside about 15 minutes when they heard a vehicle horn. The two men commented that it must be the owner of the house. She went to the front door to meet the owner.

‘“As she started down the steps she heard (one of the two men) yell ‘he’s got a gun,”’ the detective wrote. “She turned to ask who had a gun when she saw the other two running to the south and felt something hit her in the lower left back.”

At first, she thought it was a bean bag.

As Meece approached her on the ground, she “began to beg him not to shoot her again.”

The woman then stood up and walked to her car. She stopped at the laundromat because she felt light-headed and was afraid she would pass out and hurt someone in an accident.

Police have not reported whether they found the two men.