Victim’s family ‘haunted every day’ as Wichita man is sentenced for double killing
A 28-year-old Wichita man convicted of killing two people over illegal street drugs in a backyard shed in 2022 was ordered Tuesday to serve at least 71 years in prison before he has his first chance at parole.
Justin E. Macormac would be around 99 years old by then — meaning he’ll likely be incarcerated for the rest of his life.
Macormac pleaded guilty in May to charges that resolved four criminal cases, including first-degree premeditated murder and voluntary manslaughter in the Feb. 13, 2022, double shooting of 30-year-old Connor D. O’Callaghan and 38-year-old Bonnie L. Galloway. Prosecutors initially filed a capital murder charge in the case.
Court records say witnesses found the friends dead from gunshot wounds to the head after Macormac and another man who knew Galloway went to 2141 S. Erie, near Pawnee and Hillside, looking for fake Percocet laced with fentanyl, known on the streets as “blues.” The men planned to rob them and Macormac shot them while they were sitting on a couch in the shed, where Galloway had apparently been living, probable cause affidavits say. He took guns and cellphones before walking out.
Police later arrested Macormac and the other man. Brandon G. Prouse, 23, is scheduled for an arraignment Friday on two charges of first-degree felony murder. He will have an opportunity to enter a not-guilty or other plea then.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said Tuesday in court that Macormac carried out the killings as part of a crime spree in which other lives “easily could have been lost,” showed a “disregard utterly for his community,” and deserved consecutive sentences for the deadly shootings.
Describing O’Callaghan as special, incredibly resilient and compassionate in comments to the court, O’Callaghan’s younger sister called her brother’s shooting an execution that caused “unspeakable loss” to her family.
O’Callaghan, she said, was “the man of the house” growing up with only her and her mother. He taught her to ride a bike, took her to college and had planned to walk her down the aisle one day. He found the most joy in being outdoors, with children and at family gatherings.
Now, there is a “gaping hole left in our family” and an “empty seat at the dining room table,” Maddie O’Callaghan said.
“We’re haunted every day with the thoughts and vision of you murdering Connor,” she said.
Galloway’s family submitted a letter to the court detailing their trauma but did not make in-person comments Tuesday. In an interview with The Eagle after her death, Galloway’s sister described her as an outgoing mother of three boys who had an infectious smile and a knack for making friends.
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Defense attorney Timothy Frieden told the court Macormac started using drugs and alcohol daily when he was a preteen, which led to poor decisions and altered brain chemistry. Documents he filed with the court describe Macormac as a troubled youth who spent his formative years in gangs and interacting with the justice system, being kicked out of multiple relatives’ homes and developing an addiction to illicit drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, after he turned 13.
Frieden said Macormac acknowledged responsibility for his actions and wants a chance to become sober and “change his ways.” He pleaded for concurrent sentences so Macormac might have a chance at parole 20 years sooner, when he is 79 years old.
“A 51-year sentence. Chances that Justin will live that long is probably unlikely,” Frieden said.
But “to even get out at that age, it’s still a life.”
When it was his turn to speak, Macormac also said he accepted responsibility. “Nobody deserves to lose somebody that they love,” he said.
Ultimately Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering followed the prosecutor’s recommendation, saying Macormac should have to serve a full sentence for each of the two people killed.
He ordered Macormac to serve at least 51 years, 8 months for the first-degree murder of O’Callaghan followed by 19 years, 5 months for the voluntary manslaughter of Galloway.
The sentences for his convictions in the other three cases — attempted second-degree murder and two counts of criminal discharge of a firearm — will be served concurrently to each other and to the prison term he received for the double shooting.
This story was originally published September 10, 2024 at 4:45 PM.
