Wichita man who killed stepdaughter-turned-wife says his lawyers withheld evidence
The sentencing hearing for a Wichita man convicted of murdering the stepdaughter he later made his common-law wife was cut short on Friday after he claimed his lawyers failed to present important evidence at his trials.
Larry Ingram, 44, also had been convicted of raping his other former stepdaughters.
He told the judge that he gave vital information to his attorneys before he was tried by jurors, but for some reason they chose not to use it. Ingram had multiple lawyers before his rape trial in December and his murder trial in January. He alleged Friday in court that their omissions led to ineffective legal representation.
The comments came during part of the sentencing hearing where defendants often apologize to victims, plead for leniency and make other statements that may influence a judge's decision about what punishment to hand down. Ingram has maintained his innocence throughout, saying in court Friday: 'I am being convicted of a crime I did not commit.'
Sedgwick County District Judge Tyler Roush promptly ended the sentencing hearing and told Ingram that he would appoint a new lawyer to represent him and investigate the ineffective assistance of counsel claims. At some point in the future, a hearing will be scheduled where his previous lawyers will be called to testify and the alleged deficiencies argued.
But Roush said he would need to find an attorney who had time to sift through a substantial amount of information, including trial transcripts, in the two sizable cases.
Often defendants make claims that their lawyers failed to effectively represent them as part of their appeals, after convictions and sentencings happen. Roush said in court that handling Ingram's claims before his sentences were imposed would shorten the time his cases spent in appeals.
Jurors convicted Ingram in January of second-degree reckless murder and violating a protective order in the Dec. 21, 2023, shooting death of his stepdaughter and common-law wife, 23-year-old Deniq Jasmine Ingram, at their northeast Wichita apartment after she got up in the middle of the night to pump breast milk for their newborn son. Ingram told police the shooting was a terrible mistake, that he reached for a Glock 10mm handgun and fired into the dark after he heard a noise and Deniq didn't answer when he called out for her. She died from a single gunshot wound to her left breast.
Deniq Ingram's family has claimed that Ingram killed her on purpose to prevent her from testifying at a sex abuse trial where he was ultimately convicted of 17 crimes, including raping and molesting her sisters for years while they were children and he was married to their mother. The sexual abuse resulted in at least three pregnancies that the girls were forced by Ingram to abort, the abused sisters have testified in court.
Ingram is facing multiple life sentences in the rape case plus additional time and as many as 42 years in the murder case. Before Ingram's sentencing hearing was ended early Friday, prosecutors asked the judge to run all of the sentences back to back while Ingram's lawyers argued for simultaneous prison terms.
Contributing: Michael Stavola of The Eagle
Wichitan fatally shot stepdaughter he considered his wife. Jurors agree it was murder
Wichitan accused of murdering stepdaughter-turned-wife is guilty of sisters' rapes
Abuse charges and a fatal shooting: Stepfather-now-husband accused in Wichita woman's death
'Best in class, best in sports': Family remembers young woman killed in north Wichita
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