Arrestee in 2020 killing has long record, including fatal crash with Wichita musician
A 42-year-old man with a long history of arrests, including being in a stolen SUV during a police pursuit that killed two people and severely injured a Wichita musician, has been arrested in a 2020 killing, police said Friday.
Christopher Eugene English was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Thursday on suspicion of first-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm in connection to the Dec. 2, 2020, early morning killing of Michael Horn. The 49-year-old was found shot at a home in the 1800 block of South Main and later died at the hospital.
Wichita police spokesperson Chad Ditch said English has been in custody in a federal case since May 2021. He didn’t know when English had become a suspect in the killing.
English is expected to make a first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court in the homicide case Friday afternoon.
The arrest comes the same week English was sentenced to a decade in federal prison, according to federal court records. English was sentenced earlier this week after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a gun. That case involved a May 11, 2020, arrest of English at P4 Firearms, records show. A gun was found under English’s seat, and there was a warrant for his arrest, the records say.
The federal court document says the 10-year prison term will run consecutively to any sentence English would receive if he is convicted of the charges he faces in Sedgwick County, including first-degree murder, aggravated assault of an officer and fleeing or attempting to elude and other crimes.
English has convictions throughout his childhood and adult life.
English’s earliest conviction, a child sex crime, came in 1992 when he was just 11 years old, according to Sedgwick County District Court records. In 2000, after he reached adulthood, a federal judge ordered him to serve seven years in federal prison for brandishing a firearm during a violent crime.
In May 2019, he was a passenger in a stolen BMW SUV that sparked a police chase in downtown Wichita. The SUV collided with another vehicle, killing 70-year-old Maria Wood and her 12-year-old granddaughter, Rosemary McElroy. Jenny Wood, a local musician and daughter and aunt to the victims, suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash.
Wood blamed police for causing the accident after starting a police pursuit in a busy downtown. She and another family member sued the city, which settled the lawsuit for $500,000 last fall, court records show.
English had been released from prison a few months before the deadly crash in 2019. The woman driving the stolen SUV, 27-year-old Mia Collins, was sentenced earlier this year to life in prison plus 38 months.
Contributing: Amy Renee Leiker of The Wichita Eagle
This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 1:30 PM.