Jury acquits Wichita man of murder in deadly 2019 shooting outside of south-side club
A Wichita man has been acquitted of murder in a 2019 fatal shooting behind a south-side night club that authorities say is a known gang hangout.
A jury on Monday found Jose E. Fortiz not guilty of charges connected to the death of 22-year-old Anthony J. Slaughter outside of the Rumba Latina Club near Hydraulic and Southeast Boulevard. This was the second time Fortiz was tried for Slaughter’s slaying. In November 2019, a judge declared a mistrial after a jury was “hopelessly deadlocked” in their deliberations and could not reach a unanimous verdict, court records show.
Fortiz was arrested and charged with first-degree premeditated murder, attempted murder, two counts of criminal discharge of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon after a witness in the case identified him as the shooter, according to court records and lawyers at trial.
Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorneys Kari Burks and Justin Edwards contended Slaughter was inadvertently caught in the cross hairs of a long-standing gang rivalry between Fortiz and a friend who went with him to the Rumba Latina Club to pick up a forgotten debit card on Feb. 2, 2019.
The feud, prosecutors told jurors last week, started during a scuffle between the gang members at the 2011 River Fest celebration, eight years earlier.
Fortiz’s defense lawyer argued, however, that the friend who went with Slaughter to the club that night believed he was the intended target and pointed to his client as the shooter, “it was far from a positive ID.”
Attorney John Studtmann told jurors last week that Fortiz was blamed because he was the only person in the club who the friend “recognized from his past and that’s how his name came up.”
Slaughter was hit once in the upper chest outside of the club, 1953 S. Hydraulic, although witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots. Police have said he ran one block to the west and collapsed in the street before he died at a Wichita hospital shortly after midnight.
Jurors began their deliberations on Friday and returned to court Monday morning to finish. The not-guilty verdict came late morning Monday, according to Dan Dillon, spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Christopher Magana presided over the trial.
