Judge sends Wichita woman to prison for ex-stepdad’s mutilation, knife murder
A Sedgwick County judge on Tuesday sentenced a Wichita woman to life in prison for murdering her ex-stepfather during a meth-fueled revenge plot she concocted with her then-boyfriend to get back at him for allegedly molesting her as a child — calling it a “heartbreaking” and “horrible episode” that no one involved would forget.
“All of us will always remember it,” Sedgwick County District Judge David Dahl said after announcing that Micaela L. Spencer would serve at least 50 years for murder along with a total of 51 months on other charges connected to the brutal events surrounding 50-year-old William “Billy” G. Callison’s 2019 killing.
“I wish none of us were here. I wish none of this would have happened,” the judge said.
Authorities say Spencer, 27, and Royce A. Thomas, 28, lured Callison to his death by promising him sex in exchange for $45 and some marijuana on May 12, 2019. But instead of taking only money and drugs after the sex, they stabbed him repeatedly with pocket knives after meeting him at his RV camper then disguised Thomas to look like Callison, stole his truck and tried to take a pricey 1963 Stingray Corvette on a trailer from a facility where Callison’s boss was storing it.
In what prosecutors characterized as a particularly “heinous and horrifying” end to the sex-and-stabbing encounter, the couple mutilated Callison’s body and left him for dead.
Spencer’s boyfriend claimed in a police interview, however, that Callison wasn’t alive when they disfigured him, according to an affidavit released in the case.
Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorney Shannon Wilson said Tuesday that the crime scene images jurors and Callison’s family were “forced to watch” at trial because Spencer wanted “to memorialize” the killing were so troubling that they would “never be the same.”
Jurors convicted Spencer of first-degree premeditated murder, misdemeanor selling sexual relations and two counts of felony theft on Sept. 2. Her boyfriend, Thomas, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and two counts of theft and is serving more than 54 years in prison.
“No person or family should have to be put through such a violent act,” Wilson said in court, reading a prepared statement from Callison’s mother, sister and nephew that also apologized to everyone involved in resolving such a brutal case.
“We ask for the safety of all mankind and justice to be served,” Wilson said, reading from the statement.
Through her defense attorney, Spencer on Tuesday maintained that the murder wasn’t premeditated and the plan to punish Callison was supposed to go differently.
The lawyer, Casey Cotton, asked the judge to throw out the verdict, arguing that the evidence didn’t support a first-degree murder conviction and that gruesome crime scene photos shown to jurors denied Spencer a fair trial.
But Dahl disagreed, saying evidence prosecutors presented “was incredibly clear and much more than satisfactory” for jurors to convict.
Spencer, dressed in a green jail jumpsuit, sat emotionless throughout Tuesday’s hearing. She offered no apology to Callison’s family and told the judge she had nothing to add before he announced her sentence.
“It’s terribly sad what happened. The lives that were affected,” Dahl said.
“People will never be able to forget this.”
