Man sentenced to 24 years in concrete worker’s murder

Correction: Efren Antonio Villarreal-Alvarado was 43 when he was killed. Previous versions of this story gave an incorrect age.

A Wichita man convicted of killing a concrete company worker last year was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years, 1 month in prison for second-degree murder and aggravated robbery.

Donnie Lalonde, 35, also was ordered to help pay $25,000 in restitution to reimburse the Kansas Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund, which helps victims and their families pay for unforeseen expenses stemming from violent crime, and $133.94 to repair a vehicle windshield damaged when 43-year-old Efren Antonio Villarreal-Alvarado was fatally shot on Feb. 21, 2014.

Villarreal-Alvarado was found in his truck – alive but with a gunshot wound to his chest – by his co-workers who had arrived at Santana Concrete, 3665 W. McCormick, at about 7:15 a.m. that day. He died a short time later at a Wichita hospital.

His former wife, Dawn Villarreal, told Sedgwick County District Court Judge Christopher Magana that Villarreal-Alvarado had sat “alone and dying for 45 minutes” before help arrived.

Police have said robbery motivated the shooting.

“We will not grow old together or watch our children start their families,” Dawn Villarreal said, noting that she had been reconciling with Villarreal-Alvarado when he died.

In a lengthy, emotional speech to the court, she and her three adult daughters – Villarreal-Alvarado’s stepchildren – asked Magana to impose the maximum sentence allowed under Kansas law.

Of Lalonde, Dawn Villarreal said: “He is now, and he always will be a vicious predator.”

Lalonde, dressed in a green jail jumpsuit and shackles and with his defense attorney by his side, turned down his chance to address the court Tuesday. He originally was charged with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery but pleaded guilty to a lesser murder charge on Sept. 4.

Magana followed attorneys’ recommendations in Lalonde’s plea agreement and sentenced him to 228 months in prison for murder and 61 months in prison for aggravated robbery. The terms will run back to back.

Lalonde is one of two men implicated in Villarreal-Alvarado’s murder. The other, 42-year-old Deon Nolan Hale, who also goes by the name Auriel Huntstwobears, is set to face a jury on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery on Nov. 2.

Before imposing Tuesday’s sentence, Magana told Lalonde he was headed to prison “for a significant period of time.”

“Whether you choose to reflect upon what you’ve heard today from these individuals (Villarreal-Alvarado’s family) is up to you,” Magana said. “But they’ve certainly made it clear to you that your actions a year and a half ago certainly have long-reaching consequences and were tragic … for the victims in this case.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 8:08 PM with the headline "Man sentenced to 24 years in concrete worker’s murder."