Wichita man whose premeditated murder conviction was tossed is resentenced to 13 years
A Wichita man who was facing life in prison for a 2016 homicide has been resentenced to 138 months after the Kansas Supreme Court reversed his first-degree premeditated murder conviction last May.
Casimiro Nunez, 65, in January pleaded guilty to a count of second-degree reckless murder for the Oct. 29, 2016, shooting death of 46-year-old Antonio Guzman in south Wichita’s Planeview Neighborhood. A Sedgwick County District Court judge handed down the new sentence last month, less than a year after Nunez argued successfully on appeal that jurors might have reached a different verdict if his trial judge had included involuntary manslaughter among their options for conviction.
Nunez claims he shot Guzman three times in self-defense after Guzman threatened him with a knife and tried to rob him. Authorities found a discarded kitchen knife outside of Nunez’s home, where the shooting occurred, and a box cutter near Guzman’s body after Nunez called 911 to report the killing and flagged down an officer, The Eagle previously reported.
Prosecutors at trial said at least one of Nunez’ shots hit Guzman after he was already lying on the ground.
In addition to the new 138-month sentence, Nunez is also serving 18 months for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, for a total of 156 months in prison, or 13 years.
He will be eligible for parole as early as June of 2028, decades earlier than if he had been forced to serve out his original sentence, which didn’t allow parole for at least 50 years.
