After jury picked for murder trial, Wichita man pleads guilty in deadly stabbing
A Wichita man has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of a 59-year-old man in 2020.
Kenneth R. Junious Jr., 38, entered the plea Tuesday morning, a day after attorneys had finished picking a jury to hear the case, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Dan Dillon said by email. Junious was scheduled to be tried for murder this week in the Nov. 15, 2020, stabbing death of Bryan Lee Turner at a house in the 2800 block of South Washington. Wichita police have said both men were visiting the home when they started fighting.
During the scuffle, Junious pulled a knife and stabbed Turner in the neck and abdomen, police said previously.
Prosecutors originally charged Junious with first-degree premeditated murder. He is scheduled for sentencing on May 2, Dillon said.
