Wichita man sentenced for killing mother’s boyfriend after sex abuse
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- Wichita man sentenced to 55 months for fatally stabbing mother's boyfriend.
- Defendant claimed stabbing followed confrontation over alleged child abuse.
- Judge denied probation request; plea reduced charge to voluntary manslaughter.
A Wichita man has been ordered to serve four years, seven months in prison for fatally stabbing his mother’s longtime boyfriend during a fight at their home earlier this year.
William “Billy” A. Ball, 24, pleaded guilty in June to an amended count of voluntary manslaughter in the March 13 killing of 51-year-old Brian Edwards of Wichita. Sedgwick County District Judge William Woolley handed down the 55-month sentence Friday after denying a motion for probation from Ball’s lawyer, Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Lyndsee Stover said.
Ball told police he was trying to convince his mother to throw Edwards out of the house for sexually abusing and continuing to mistreat a young female relative when Edwards started “baiting and insulting” him and his family, according to a probable cause affidavit. During the ensuing argument, Ball was holding a kitchen knife that he’d been using to prepare a family meal, the affidavit says.
Ball told police he had been using the knife as a “pointer” during the fight and started swinging it when Edwards began grabbing for his head, the affidavit says. He stabbed Edwards in the side after Edwards came toward him, court records say.
The stabbing happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. in the 4100 block of East Whitney Lane, near Pawnee and Oliver. Edwards died at a hospital.
Ball immediately surrendered to police and confessed, saying when he realized he had stabbed his mother’s boyfriend, “he lost all anger and was sorry about what he did,” the probable cause affidavit says.
Prosecutors originally charged Ball with second-degree reckless murder.
