Man who died in El Dorado prison was serving sentence for Wichita crimes

A man who had been incarcerated since November for Wichita crimes has died in a Kansas prison.

Christopher J. Walton died Monday at El Dorado Correctional Facility, the Kansas Department of Corrections announced in a news release. He was 36 years old.

Prison officials said his death did not appear to be related to COVID-19. The cause of death is pending results of an autopsy as the death is investigated by the KDOC and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Walton had been imprisoned since Nov. 30, serving a sentence from Sedgwick County for convictions on drug possession, burglary, criminal damage to property and battery of a law enforcement officer charges. His earliest possible release date was in November 2023.

Wichita police reports and Sedgwick County District Court records show Walton was arrested in connection to a June 11, 2019, incident at a home on St. Paul near Central. He was accused of breaking into an elderly man’s house at around 3 a.m., damaging more than $3,000 worth of property, possessing methamphetamine and battering a police officer during his jail booking.

He was originally placed on probation, but was sent to serve an underlying 42-month prison sentence after multiple probation violations.

Walton is the second prisoner to die in KDOC custody this month.

Lansing Correctional Facility resident Addison L. Payne died May 11. Prison officials said the cause of death was pending the results of an autopsy, but did not appear to be related to COVID-19. He was 53 years old.

Payne had been serving a life sentence, but KDOC records showed his earliest possible release date was in June. He had been in prison since 1993 for Sedgwick County convictions of rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated kidnapping and robbery.

This story was originally published May 18, 2021 at 3:38 PM.