Crime of the Week - Wichita and Sedgwick County
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CRIME STOPPERS CASE No.1148

The Wichita Police Department Burglary Section needs your assistance. Several recent burglaries in the downtown area are believed to be related. Sometime overnight between Wednesday, Nov. 9, and Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011 someone broke in through the glass door of Holy Land Mediterranean Café, 217 E. Douglas. On Saturday, Nov. 12, between 5:00 and 10:00 a.m., a similar burglary occurred to Fat Tony’s, 417 E. Douglas. In both burglaries cash and the cash registers were taken. Other burglaries in the area also could be connected.

 


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If you have information about these burglaries or any felony crime, call Crime Stoppers at 267-2111. You can also submit a tip online at www.wsccs.com or from your mobile phone by texting TIP217, then your message to CRIMES (274637). All ways are secure and anonymous. If your tip leads to an arrest you may be eligible for a cash reward up to $1,000, and Crime Stoppers will never ask your name. Crime Stoppers of Wichita/Sedgwick County is a non-profit organization of citizens against crime.
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Crime and Courts
Jury selection begins in Brett Seacat’s murder trial

Jury selection is underway in the first-degree murder trial of Brett Seacat, a former law enforcement officer and police instructor accused of killing his wife and setting fire to the couple’s Kingman home more than two years ago.

Sixteen people – eight men and eight women – were qualified as jurors in the first round of jury selection, which lasted about three hours Monday morning. Out of 24 prospective jurors summoned in the first of 12 panels, seven were dismissed after citing medical issues or an inability to be impartial in the case; one was dismissed at the request of prosecutors after he failed to report to court.

In a second round that took about 21/2 hours, nine women and six men – out of 23 people – were deemed acceptable to serve as jurors at Seacat’s trial. One woman had been previously excused, Kingman County District Court Judge Larry Solomon said.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT
A fire, a body, a murder trial in Kingman after more than two years

On Monday, two years and 20 days after Vashti Forrest Seacat’s body was found in the charred remains of her Kingman home, attorneys will start picking jurors who will be asked to decide between two arguments already raised in court:

That the 34-year-old woman’s husband, Brett Seacat, a law enforcement trainer and former Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed her and set fire to their home, or that she started the blaze and then shot herself.

Felicia Ryder, who organized a candlelight vigil to remember Vashti Seacat soon after the tragedy, said that Brett Seacat’s first-degree murder trial will offer closure for the town. The case has been weighing on people, and the big old house where it all happened – now vacant and boarded up – is part of that weight, Ryder said.

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Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT
Dead man proves to be key witness in murder trial

A Sedgwick County jury began deliberations Friday in a first-degree murder trial that started just six weeks after a key witness committed suicide.

But the testimony that the deceased witness gave at an earlier hearing proved to be some of the strongest evidence that prosecutors had in their case against Travis Knighten.

Knighten, 20, is charged in the May 7, 2011, shooting death of Mario Brown, 22, at an after-hours party in a parking lot at the southwest corner of 13th and Hillside.

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Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06 CDT
Last Refreshed 5/20/2013 7:58:51 PM