Prison ordered for Wichita man who killed friend who refused to give him ride home
A Wichita man will spend 43 months in prison for fatally beating a friend and former roommate who refused to give him a ride home from the Dillons grocery store parking lot at 21st and Rock Road more than two years ago.
A jury in August convicted Steven M. Speakman of involuntary manslaughter in the Aug. 21, 2019, attack that led to the death of 33-year-old Haley A. Collins of Bel Aire. Speakman was tried on one count of second-degree intentional murder in Sedgwick County District Court, but jurors found him guilty of the lesser charge after hearing evidence.
Prosecutors alleged Speakman had been drinking and bickering with Collins before he knocked the man over and punched him repeatedly with his bare hands as they walked toward a nearby McDonald’s restaurant around 2 a.m. Speakman told authorities he had “blacked out” and attacked Collins in self-defense but didn’t mean to kill him, court records show. Collins died at a Wichita hospital on Sept. 5, 2019, about two weeks after he was beaten unconscious.
Sedgwick County District Judge David Dahl handed down the sentence on Wednesday after denying a request for probation from Speakman’s lawyer, according to court records.
