This Man Was Released In The Murder Case Of A Pregnant Woman And Her Boyfriend In A Kansas Apartment

Illustration-Jenazah (Freepic)

JAKARTA - A 41-year-old man was released in the murder case of a pregnant woman and her boyfriend in 2016 in an apartment in Topeka, Kansas. The release verdict was read out on Friday, May 17. The jury's verdict in the murder and rape case was met with anger from his father, Charles Trotter. He was then asked to leave the courtroom. "It's all about truth and honesty, and what was presented today is not that," Trotter told Topeka Capital-Journal outside the court building, quoted via CBS News, Monday, May 20. The 20-year-old Camrah Trotter victim was killed while calling 911 after his 23-year-old girlfriend, Dominique Ray was shot dead. Prosecutors said two men had been waiting for Ray, opening fire when he arrived at the apartment with his cousin. Putri Trotter, who was then 4 years old and now 12 years old, identified Yanez Sanford as the killer and remembered hiding under the bed afterward. But a defense witness said police often manipulated children to give answers the child thought would be 'true' by investigators. In fact, according to defense witnesses, the victim's cousin, Jamontez Fulton, who also identified Sanford, turned out to be only seeing the shooters briefly. Prosecutors said Trotter, who was pregnant with the third trimester, was raped and DNA evidence identified Sanford's manifold fluid. But Sanford's lawyer said DNA could stay in the body for a week, and suggested Sanford and Trotter had sex consensual during the week before he died. Defenders also argue that Ray's murder is retaliation for the shooting of another man and suggest another suspect is responsible. Dan Dunbar, a retired deputy chief prosecutor for Shawnee Regency who works as a special prosecutor in the case, said police considered the people not an "alternative suspect" but Sanford's potential "leg", and continued to investigate their possible involvement. No one else was charged in this case. Defenders also suggested at trial that 30 videos of police body cameras being accidentally destroyed may contain evidence that would help prove Sanford's innocence.

CBA affiliate, WIBW, reported police Topeka investigated the killings for four years before Sanford was arrested in Missouri in September 2020. He was later extradited back to Kansas and charged with the killings. Sanford has been the fourth defendant to be acquitted of murder in Shawnee Regency since March 2023, Topeka Capital-Journal reported.