Valley Center man, 25, gets life sentence in 2023 killing of Wichita teen

A 25-year-old Valley Center man was given a life sentence this week for the 2023 killing of Wichita teen who was found shot in a rolling vehicle in south Wichita.

Rico Jermanine Brown Jr. won’t be eligible for parole for more than 51 years in the killing of 16-year-old Elrecus Nolan.

In July, a jury found Brown guilty of first-degree murder.

Another defendant, 22-year-old Dougqualynn Raymond Patterson of Wichita, has been charged with intentional and premeditated first-degree murder.

Police were called to the shooting at 10:20 p.m. on July 3, 2023, near Mount Vernon and Ellis and found Nolan not breathing with a gunshot wound to his upper body.

He was in the driver’s seat and the only occupant of a 2002 Ford Taurus. He died at the scene.

A witness reported hearing several gunshots before seeing a silver 2002 Ford Taurus “slowly rolling westbound on Mount Vernon, hitting the curb before stopping on the sidewalk,” police previously said.

An arrest affidavit lays out some of the details of what happened. Here is what it says:

The shooting happened a few blocks east of where Nolan was found.

Surveillance video showed a suspect vehicle that police thought to be a 2015 or later Ford Fusion. Police used Flock license-plate readers to look for a “silver or gray” Ford sedan in Wichita within a few hours of the shooting.

One vehicle that came back was registered to Patterson, who had an active warrant through Wichita.

Officers located the vehicle and approached Patterson when he got into the driver’s seat.

Police found a “spent shell casing in the outside windshield cowl” which matched the shells found at the shooting scene.

Patterson told police that at 4 a.m. on the day of the shooting he met up with Nolan and two others to hang out. He got into the backseat of Nolan’s vehicle, then all three of the other occupants pointed guns at him and robbed him of $800, his handgun and watch.

“They also searched his vehicle for additional property,” the affidavit says.

Patterson was told to leave and got in his car to drive away when roughly 10 shots were fired at him. He wasn’t hit.

His “vehicle was examined and found to have numerous gunshot holes.” Officers who went to the area where Patterson said he had been robbed found eight 9 mm shell casings.

Patterson told two of his friends, including Brown. The other friend was arrested but hasn’t been charged.

Brown was “particularly upset about what had happened and said he would kill Nolan for him.”

The three of them drove around looking for Nolan.

Eventually, they happened to be at a Valero gas station when Nolan arrived.

“The three of them waited ... for Nolan to leave.”

Patterson was in the backseat on the driver’s side of a vehicle. Brown was driving. They followed Nolan to his house. Nolan then left and they followed, until Nolan came to a stoplight.

Patterson said that Brown “leaned out of the car and fired a handgun at and toward Nolan and his vehicle. He estimated there were 10 shots in total. He observed Nolan go unconscious while still at the stoplight.”

They then drove off.

Police found $1,137 in Nolan’s pocket and a handgun in the center console.

Brown was arrested five days after the shooting, and a 9 mm handgun was found in the apartment where he was arrested. Patterson was arrested three days after the shooting.

They’ve both remained in Sedgwick County Jail since then.