Wichitan accused of murdering stepdaughter-turned-wife is guilty of sisters’ rapes
Find the latest story in this case here: Guilty verdict in Wichita KS stepdaughter-turned-wife murder
A 43-year-old Wichita man charged with killing his stepdaughter-turned-wife in a shooting at their apartment last year has been convicted of 17 crimes tied to the sexual abuse of her sisters.
A Sedgwick County jury on Monday found Larry Ingram Jr. guilty of his former stepdaughters’ abuse, including multiple counts of rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated intimidation of a witness, aggravated incest, battery and aggravated assault. He is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 31 and faces the possibility of life in prison on some of the counts, court records show.
Ingram is charged with second-degree reckless murder and violating a protection order in a separate case in connection with the Dec. 21, 2023, shooting death of another stepdaughter, 23-year-old Deniq Jasmine Ingram, who was also his common-law wife and mother of his child. Deniq Ingram’s mother has alleged Ingram also sexually abused Deniq and has said she thinks “he killed her so that she couldn’t testify” against him in the sex crimes case involving her sisters, where she was listed as a trial witness. Ingram denies that.
The fatal shooting happened after Ingram’s trial was postponed for a third time in 2023 and while he was out of jail on bond, The Eagle has reported.
Ingram told police he shot Deniq in the chest around 12:40 a.m. because he heard a noise in their dark apartment, 7750 E. 32nd St. North, and thought she was an intruder. He claimed he called out her name and when she didn’t answer and walked around the corner, “he shot her because she scared him,” a probable cause affidavit says. Their 3-month-old baby was in the apartment at the time.
Ingram has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in the murder case on Jan. 21.
He has also denied guilt in the sexual abuse case.
The Eagle does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse but the sisters’ mother has spoken openly with The Eagle about the years-long abuse her daughters endured by Ingram, her former husband. Daniva Chandler previously told The Eagle she met Ingram in 2010, married him within a few years and that he was like a father to her children. She has said she didn’t know he had been molesting and raping her daughters until 2019, at which time she contacted police and fled the state.
Deniq Ingram was an adult by then, claimed she hadn’t been abused and stayed behind. Chandler has said her daughter had Stockholm Syndrome, when someone bonds with their abuser or captor.
Her sisters have testified in court that Ingram sometimes held a gun and threatened to kill them if they didn’t stay silent. One sister testified that Ingram told her she was a “creature of light” who “needed energy” that she could only get from having sex with him, or “bad things would happen.”
The sexual abuse resulted in at least three pregnancies that the girls were forced by Ingram to abort, they have testified. Ingram called one girl’s fetus a “devil child” and tried to terminate her pregnancy by pummeling her in the stomach, according to the testimony. He forced another daughter to lie to Planned Parenthood about who had fathered her fetus, records show.
The abuse continued for around five years, prosecutors alleged. Ingram has claimed he “was not always with” the girls when they say the sexual assaults happened, court records show.
This month’s trial, which began Dec. 9, was Ingram’s second for the sex crimes. His first, in October, ended in a mistrial.
Jurors deliberated for “a little less than three hours” before finding Ingram guilty, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said Tuesday. District Judge Tyler Roush presided.
Contributing: Michael Stavola of The Eagle
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 4:38 PM.
