Wichita man sentenced for killing where victim was left to die in street
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- Julian Wedge sentenced to 23 years for 2023 fatal street shooting in Wichita.
- Convictions included second-degree murder, robbery and evidence destruction.
- Judge ruled juror misconduct did not violate defendant’s right to fair trial.
A Wichita man has been sentenced to 23 years, nine months in prison in the shooting death of another man who was left to die on a street in March 2023.
Jurors in October found Julian Cesar Wedge, 25, guilty of second-degree reckless murder and robbery in the killing of 24-year-old Evan Chad Harrison of Wichita. Wedge was also convicted of interference with law enforcement for destroying evidence of the homicide and one count of criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
He was sentenced Tuesday by Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering following unsuccessful efforts to have his convictions thrown out over juror misconduct. The misconduct included a juror taking notes at home about witness testimony while the trial was ongoing and two jurors looking up definitions on their phone during deliberations, according to court records.
The judge decided that, though forbidden, neither “substantially prejudiced” Wedge’s right to a fair trial, court records say.
Wedge pleaded not guilty in the case.
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 Clifton and Cumberland Way in the Oaklawn-Sunview neighborhood area, and left him to die.
He was pronounced dead 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 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 knew one another because they previously spent time together in jail and had communicated over Facebook Messenger shortly before the shooting, court records say.
