Wichita man pleads guilty to murder in semi-pro football player’s killing 7 years ago
A 25-year-old Wichita man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other crimes in the shooting death of a semi-pro football player at his apartment more than seven years ago.
Larry D. Triplett III is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 22 in connection with the July 15, 2017, killing of 19-year-old Timothy J. Golden, a tight end for the Wichita-based Kansas Cougars.
Wichita police found Golden lying face down in the kitchen of his second-floor apartment, 550 S. Laclede, near Kellogg and McLean, after three men went there and fired more than a dozen rounds inside.
Triplett entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to charges in two cases, court records show: second-degree intentional murder, aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery.
Prosecutors agreed to dismiss 10 other counts and not pursue charges related to another case from 2022 in exchange, according to Triplett’s plea agreement. They expect to ask the judge to send Triplett to prison for 20 1/2 years.
Triplett’s lawyer can ask for less time, as long as it is a “legal sentence of imprisonment,” the plea agreement says.
Triplett is already serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for a drug conspiracy where he obtained more than 400 grams of fentanyl in Wichita and distributed or planned to distribute it to others between April and October of 2022, court records say. He was sentenced in that case in April.
Golden’s team dedicated its 2018 season to him after his death.
