Man who killed estranged wife’s ex outside of Wichita sports bar in 2019 gets prison
A case of ongoing animosity that ended when one man gunned down another outside of an east Wichita sports bar in 2019 has landed the convicted shooter in prison for more than 20 years.
Sedgwick County District Judge Seth Rundle ordered William Lee Gray, 47, to serve 241 months behind bars for shooting 51-year-old James Storey in the head as he sat in his truck at Southrock Billiards and Sports Bar, 2020 S. Rock Rd., the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.
Gray was sentenced Nov. 19 on one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied vehicle, court records show.
According to an arrest affidavit released by the court last year, long-standing tensions between the men boiled over on Nov. 17, 2019, after Storey spent the day playing pool at the bar.
Both men had been in a relationship with the same woman, the affidavit says, and Storey reportedly didn’t like Gray being around the two children he fathered with her because Gray is a registered sex offender, leading to bitterness between the pair. Records show Gray spent time in prison for a 1994 rape and aggravated robbery in Reno County.
At the time of the shooting, Gray was the estranged husband of Storey’s ex-wife.
Storey was shot through the passenger side window of his truck after leaving the bar by someone in a black Dodge Ram.
Police cracked the case after Storey’s father phoned authorities with a tip that Gray not only had been involved in a feud with his son but also drove the kind of vehicle authorities had been searching for in connection with the shooting.
Witnesses placed Gray there that day, the affidavit says.
Gray was originally charged with first-degree premeditated murder. He pleaded guilty to the amended counts in September, according to court records.
