15-04-2025
Woman who drove wrong way on purpose, killing Heartspring worker, pleads guilty
A 24-year-old Wichita woman has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges in connection with a fatal crash that killed a Heartspring employee last fall.
Katelyn E. Barrioz is scheduled for sentencing April 28 on second-degree reckless murder, fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement and felony theft in the Oct. 28, 2024, death of 43-year-old Mandy Lynn Buckwalter, who worked with children with disabilities in Heartspring's therapeutic school. Barrioz entered the guilty plea to the charges at her arraignment Monday, court records show.
Buckwalter died after Barrioz slammed head-on into her Chevy Cobalt with a stolen transit van during lunchtime traffic on 29th Street North near Wilderness. Authorities had been pursuing her and others prior to the collision for vehicle theft and shoplifting and followed her when she fled the parking lot of Walmart, 3030 N. Rock Road, a probable cause affidavit says.
Barrioz told police that leading up to the crash she used an ounce of methamphetamine a day, had been awake for a week due to drug use and was hallucinating as she drove into oncoming traffic on purpose in a misguided attempt to get officers to call off their pursuit, the affidavit says.
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