Wichita man sentenced for fatal shooting outside of south-side motel in 2019
A 34-year-old Wichita man will serve life in prison for killing another man outside of a south Wichita motel in 2019, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said.
Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering on Friday sentenced Christopher Daniel Kemmerly for the Feb. 17, 2019, fatal shooting of 34-year-old Justin Gaston in a parking lot behind the Citi Host Motel, 4449 S. Broadway, near 47th Street South. A jury in November convicted Kemmerly at trial of first-degree felony murder, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, possession of stolen property and arson, court records show.
Wichita police have said Kemmerly, Gaston and a woman, Reyna Shae Wallace, were all in a car in the motel parking lot when a fight over methamphetamine broke out. Kemmerly shot Gaston once as Gaston tried to get out of the car, police have said. Authorities found him fatally wounded in the parking lot.
Police found the car they were in “engulfed in flames” at another location, around 55th and West streets, about an hour and a half later, The Eagle previously reported.
Kemmerly will be eligible for parole after serving 620 months — or more than 51 years — of the life prison sentence, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the district attorney.
Wallace, 38, is serving a prison sentence for second-degree murder and aggravated robbery. She’ll be eligible for parole in 2033, according to records from the Kansas Department of Corrections.
This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 1:21 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated where Justin Gaston died.
