Wichita man with DUI history sentenced in 2018 fatal crash at south-side intersection
A Wichita man was ordered to serve more than six years in prison and pay $7,654.58 in restitution for a 2018 drunken driving traffic crash that left a 56-year-old woman dead.
Monty Ray Carpenter Jr., 36, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol over the two-car collision that killed Marsha Oglesby on Sept. 3, 2018, in south Wichita.
Prosecutors say Carpenter ran a red light at 31st Street South and McLean Boulevard and hit Oglesby’s vehicle, pinning her inside. She died later at a Wichita hospital, law enforcement said at the time.
After the deadly wreck, Carpenter ran away from the crash site and crawled underneath a trailer to hide. He was arrested by Wichita police after an officer spotted him.
Records show Carpenter already had three DUI convictions prior to the 2018 fatal crash.
Sedgwick County District Judge David Dahl sentenced Carpenter to 76 months in prison on Monday, according to a news release from Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett’s office. That’s less than the 100 months prosecutors had asked for but longer than the 60 months Carpenter’s attorney argued his client should receive in a written motion filed with the court on Monday.
The motion argues that since Oglesby’s death, Carpenter has turned his life around, “devoted himself to family,” maintained a job as a masonry worker and completed an alcohol treatment program.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss another case pending against Carpenter in exchange for his guilty plea in connection with Oglesby’s killing, according to his plea agreement.
Carpenter will remain under supervision for three years after he serves the prison portion of his sentence and will have to pay $150 a month toward the restitution amount after he gets out, Bennett’s news release said.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 11:43 AM.
