Homeless man sentenced in deadly beating on Seneca Street Bridge in Wichita
A 64-year-old homeless man convicted of second-degree intentional murder for participating in a deadly Feb. 22 attack on another homeless man on the Seneca Street Bridge has been ordered to serve 17 years, 10 months in prison, according to Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon.
In November, a Sedgwick County jury found David Chandler of Wichita guilty of killing 30-year-old Blake Barnes, who was so severely beaten in the head with metal pipes or bars that he died at a Wichita hospital within hours of bystanders calling 911. Court records say Chandler and Abel Molina were camping under the bridge when they found Barnes rummaging through Chandler’s tent and allegedly stealing a walking stick.
Chandler and Molina beat him in retaliation as motorists looked on, the records say, then left him on the bridge to die. The bridge crosses the Arkansas River in the 600 block of North Seneca, near McLean.
Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering handed down Chandler’s prison term Tuesday morning after denying a defense motion for a new trial alleging jury misconduct and a sentencing departure request, court records show. Chandler plans to appeal.
Molina, 32, of Wichita, has a jury trial scheduled next month. He is also charged with second-degree intentional murder.
