Missouri man who killed best friend at south Wichita apartment in 2019 pleads guilty
A Missouri man charged with fatally shooting his best friend in the head at a Wichita apartment in 2019 has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery, according to Sedgwick County District Court records.
Brandon C. Craig, 25, of Independence, Missouri, entered the plea on April 27, ahead of his jury trial, which had been scheduled to start Monday.
His sentencing hearing is set for June 15.
Wichita police said previously that Craig and 21-year-old Justin Lane were visiting a friend at 815 S. Emporia in Wichita when they got into a fight shortly before 8:30 a.m. on April 12, 2019. Lane, a Grain Valley, Missouri, resident, died from a single gunshot wound.
Craig gave conflicting accounts of the shooting, telling police first that the gun went off as Lane handed it to him, the affidavit says. He later claimed Lane wasn’t touching the gun when it accidentally discharged and also told police that Lane had been intimate with the mother of Craig’s child, the affidavit says.
He told others Lane had shot himself while he wasn’t in the room, the affidavit says.
But the gun, a .40-caliber XD Springfield, was equipped with two safety mechanisms, including one that “must be depressed by the shooter’s hand, when naturally grasping the gun in a firing position,” the affidavit says police found.
Prosecutors originally filed a second-degree murder charge against Craig alleging he shot Lane “unintentionally but recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
He remained in the Sedgwick County Jail on Wednesday.
Craig could face 55 to 247 months in prison for manslaughter and 11 to 34 months on the count of aggravated battery when he is sentenced, his plea agreement says. He also has agreed to pay at least $5,319.96 in restitution, according to the agreement.
