FILE PHOTO: The apartments on the campus of Southwestern College where a man was shot sit taped off with police tape Wednesday morning.
By SHANE FARLEY
Deuntae Markham – charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a Southwestern College student last December – has bonded out of the Cowley County Jail and hired a Wichita-based attorney.
Markham, 21, arrived in Winfield from San Francisco on Aug. 30 and posted a $100,000 surety bond on Aug. 31, according to Cowley County Sheriff David Falletti. The sheriff’s dept. arranged to have Markham picked up in California after he was arrested there following a traffic stop Aug. 3.
Details of Markham’s bond requirements were not immediately available Wednesday afternoon.
Markham is accused of “unintentionally but recklessly,” taking the life of 32-year-old Gabriel J. Luna, who was shot Dec. 18, 2019 at his honors apartment on Southwestern’s Winfield campus.
Markham (Photo courtesy Cowley County Sheriff’s Office)
A first appearance for Markham is set for 9 a.m. Sept. 21 in the Winfield courtroom of Judge Nick St. Peter.
Markham has hired Wichita-based Stephen Ariagno, of the Warrior Lawyers, to serve as his defense attorney.
Luna was hospitalized in Wichita and died within a few days of the shooting.
Around 1 a.m., the day of the shooting, police responded to the report of a gunshot victim in the 1700 block of Fowler. Luna appeared to have been shot through the door of his apartment, investigators said
The school was in the midst of Christmas break at the time and Luna was one of few students on campus.
No details of any events leading up to the shooting have been made public. Though there has been indication that Luna and the accused shooter knew one another in some way.
Luna was a student at the college and played golf.
