Wichita man sentenced in stabbing of twins, one fatally, in brawl over parking space
A Wichita father convicted of killing an unarmed 22-year-old woman and injuring her twin sister during a parking lot brawl in 2016 has been ordered to serve 12 years, 3 months in prison.
The sentence caps a murder case that was initially dismissed under the state’s Stand Your Ground law but was later reinstated after a Kansas appellate court ruled that a jury, not a judge, should have decided whether Seth Collins was justified in using deadly force during his fight with twin sisters Kayla and Shayla Brown.
Contending he acted in self-defense when he stabbed the sisters on April 30, 2016, Collins took the case to trial this summer only to be found guilty of second-degree unintentional murder and aggravated battery. He was sentenced Wednesday afternoon by Sedgwick County District Judge Kevin Mark Smith following an emotional hearing where family members of both the Browns and Collins packed the courtroom gallery.
Wichita police have said the stabbing happened on a second-floor stairway landing of a building at Falcon Pointe Apartments, 4244 S. Hydraulic, after Collins returned home from treating his two young daughters to ice cream. He got upset, authorities have said, when he couldn’t pull his vehicle into a parking spot because Shayla Brown was talking to a friend in a car in an adjacent stall.
Collins eventually parked in a different spot but got into a verbal argument and a fistfight with the women as he walked his daughters into their building, according to court records.
The fight renewed about 10 minutes later when Collins went back outside to search for lost eyeglasses. He pulled a pocket knife on the twins and their mother after they followed him into the building. Authorities say Shayla Brown yanked on Collins’ shirt after he pulled the knife, causing all four to tumble down the stairs. She was stabbed in the arm.
But Kayla Brown received a fatal knife wound to the neck.
Family remembered Kayla Brown in court Wednesday as a “desperately loved” daughter, granddaughter and sister who was working to turn her life around.
She “never deserved to have her life taken,” her mother said, describing how she tried to comfort her daughter as she lay dying.
The “right thing” for Collins to have done was stay inside his apartment and wait for the police to arrive after the initial fight that night, Trishall Dear told the judge.
Now, her family is “torn apart” and won’t ever be whole again.
“We suffer every single day,” Brown’s older sister, Cheryl Starr, told the judge.
She then turned her attention to Collins.
“Kids make mistakes. Adults make decisions. ... You made a fatal one,” she told him.
When it was his turn to speak, 45-year-old Collins read an apology from a handwritten note he brought into court.
“There are many choices I made that night that I wish I could change,” he said, adding: “I’m truly sorry.”
In comments where he asked the judge to impose no more than five years, defense lawyer Patrick Mitchell said he thinks Collins is innocent and called him a “good person” who had “no evil intent” to harm anyone but got caught up in a “bad situation.”
“Everything about this case is a lose-lose for everyone,” he said.
Prosecutor Shauna Leslie asked the judge to impose the stiffest sentence available under law, saying Collins hadn’t taken responsibility for his actions and caused “the destruction” of Kayla and Shayla Browns’ lives and their families.
In the end, the judge said he found no “substantial and compelling reasons” to grant the defense’s request for a five-year prison term but also didn’t agree that Collins should receive the maximum sentence.
He ordered 147 months on the second-degree murder conviction and seven months for the aggravated battery, to be served concurrently — or at the same time — followed by three years of post-release supervision.
“This was a difficult case” involving “an unfortunate situation” that got out of control, Smith said.
Collins, who is eligible for a nearly two-year reduction in his sentence if he behaves in prison, was visibly upset at the judge’s decision and wept while looking at his family after court. He is likely to appeal his convictions and sentence.
