Robbery, shooting in east Wichita left a man dead. Now another man will go to prison
A Sedgwick County judge on Monday ordered a 22-year-old Wichita man to serve 22 years, 11 months in prison in connection with a deadly shooting near Ninth Street and Edgemoor in 2020, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office said.
Leroy S. Gunter pleaded no contest in January to voluntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery in the Nov. 9, 2020, fatal shooting of 21-year-old Christopher K. Bell in the 900 block of North Ridgewood. Bell died at the hospital the next day.
Wichita police have said Gunter went to Bell’s house with other people who wanted to buy marijuana and shot Bell multiple times in his bedroom while stealing his handgun. Gunter later offered to sell the stolen gun over Snapchat to a police officer posing as a prospective buyer, an affidavit released by the court says.
Gunter fled after the shooting but eventually turned himself in to authorities. According to the affidavit, he told police the first shot was accidental, that his gun discharged unintentionally after Bell grabbed it and tried to take it away from him.
Gunter claimed he fired two more times after Bell grabbed his shirt and reached for his own gun “because he was scared of what Christopher (Bell) might do,” the affidavit says. But police found Facebook messages sent moments before the shooting where Gunter said he was going to commit a robbery, the affidavit says.
Prosecutors originally charged Gunter with first-degree felony murder, aggravated robbery, criminal possession of a weapon by a felon and aggravated assault. Some charges were amended or dismissed as part of plea negotiations, court records show.
District Judge Christopher Magana imposed the sentence.
