Wichita man acquitted of 2019 homicide gets prison for crimes discovered during investigation
A 45-year-old Wichita man was sentenced last week to more than three years in prison for crimes discovered by police investigating the fatal shooting of a parolee at a south-side bar in 2019.
Authorities considered David N. Pressley the prime suspect in the Sept. 29, 2019, killing of 29-year-old Damario G. Cooks outside of Magoos Bar and Grill, 2304 S. Oliver, and he was charged with the homicide and other crimes.
But a Sedgwick County jury on Oct. 7 acquitted Pressley of first-degree premeditated murder and criminal possession of a weapon by a felon in connection with Cooks’ shooting death, court records show.
Before the trial began, Pressley pleaded guilty to two other counts: possession of cocaine and criminal possession of a weapon. Pressley was charged with those crimes after police found drugs on him when he was arrested in October 2019 and also discovered a gun under his mattress during a search of the apartment where he had been staying.
Sedgwick County District Judge Bruce Brown on Friday ordered Pressley to serve 42 months in prison for those counts, according to Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Brown handed down the prison sentence after denying a request for probation from Pressley’s lawyer, who in a written motion described his client as a “peaceful, mild-mannered and non-violent” man who posed “no threat to public safety” despite a past that includes aggravated robbery and drug convictions.
Cooks was at a birthday party on Sept. 29, 2019, when an argument inside the bar spilled into the parking lot. Several shots were fired, and Cooks was hit in the head, chest, arms and leg, according to his autopsy report. He died at a Wichita hospital.
The gun that killed him was never found, according to court records. No one else has been charged in Cooks’ slaying.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 1:35 PM.
