Deuntae Markham has pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless second-degree murder and will be sentenced next month for a shooting that occurred in Dec. 2019 on the campus of Southwestern College in Winfield.
He is scheduled to appear in person at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 7 for sentencing in the courtroom of Judge Nick St. Peter at the Cowley County Courthouse in Winfield. Markham, 23, has been appearing via Zoom.
The Wichita man was facing a charge of first degree felony murder for the death of Gabriel J. Luna, an SC student at the time. His charge was reduced in exchange for a guilty plea to avoid trial.
Cowley County Attorney Larry Schwartz said second degree murder was the charge Markham had originally been faced with before prosecutors raised it to felony murder prior to arraignment. Thus, he said, to end up with a second degree murder plea seemed appropriate.
A minimum sentence for the charge is normally 8.5 years, however, prosecutors agreed to 7.5 years in exchange for the guilty plea.
During testimony at a preliminary hearing last spring, others who were with Markham on Dec. 18, 2019, the night of the shooting, testified that a group of five had planned to visit the Southwestern campus in Winfield to confront Luna.
The group believed he had raped a female that was close to and considered family by the group, which included Markam.
Markham had a gun that night as some from the group knocked on the door. As he departed, Markham fired a shot at the door of Luna’s honors apartment and Luna happened to be standing behind it.
The bullet struck Luna and he later died at the hospital. The validity of the sexual assault claim against Luna has not been determined and he never faced any charges related to that accusation.
Markham left the area after the shooting and was arrested in Aug. 2020 in San Francisco following a routine traffic stop. He was then extradited back to Cowley County and posted bond.