Wichita man accused of shooting victim who was left to die in street. He’s guilty
A Sedgwick County jury has found a Wichita man guilty of charges in the shooting death of another man whom authorities found dying on a street in March 2023.
Julian Cesar Wedge, 24, was convicted of second-degree reckless murder and robbery in connection with 24-year-old Evan Chad Harrison’s death. He was also convicted of interference with law enforcement for destroying evidence of the homicide. Jurors deliberated for about 10 1/2 hours Monday and Tuesday before reaching their verdicts, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said.
Wedge was found not guilty by the jury of one count of first-degree murder. He entered an Alford plea at the start of his trial to one count of criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, Dillon said. An Alford plea has the same outcome as a guilty plea but allows a defendant to maintain innocence.
Wedge previously pleaded not guilty in the case. He is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 13.
Prosecutors alleged Wedge shot Harrison twice in the right leg around 11:30 p.m. on March 4, 2023, after a struggle that started when Wedge tried to rob Harrison of a gun he was selling. After the shooting, Wedge and others pushed Harrison out of a car into the street, near the intersection of Clifton and Cumberland Way in the Oaklawn-Sunview neighborhood area, and left him to die.
He died at Wesley Medical Center on March 5, 2023, after undergoing surgery, court records say.
Harrison’s backpack and gun were never found. Prosecutors say Wedge was later seen by neighbors burning clothing, towels reportedly used to clean blood from the car and other items in fire pits doused with gasoline at a mobile home park near 47th Street South and West Street. Authorities later found charred shell casings in the fire pits that were of the same caliber as the gun that shot Harrison.
Wedge and Harrison apparently knew one another because they previously spent time together in jail and had communicated over Facebook Messenger shortly before the shooting, court records say. Both of the men lived in Wichita.
Wedge’s trial started Sept. 23. Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering presided.
