TOPEKA (KSNT) - Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay gave updates on homicide cases in the county on the Channel 27 News Morning Show on Wednesday.
Kagay gave updates on Jihad Anwar Keys who was found guilty of murder and a slew of other charges from 2017 to 2019. Kagay said after a long process of pretrial litigation, motions and evidentiary hearings the case finally moved to a jury trial and Keys was convicted.
"He's being held accountable for a crime spree that went on between 2017 and 2019 to include two murders..." Kagay said. "This is someone who's very dangerous in our community. We believe that -and we provided evidence to support this at trial- that he was committing these crimes in an attempt to create and elevate a new criminal street gang, of which he was the leader."
Kagay gave an update on the prosecution of Dana Chandler who was accused of killing her ex-husband and his fiance in 2002. The trial made national headlines, Chandler was convicted of killing her ex-husband, Michael Sisco, and his fiance, Karen Harkness, in Harkness’ Topeka home.
According to Kagay, the Chanldler case is set to go to trial on July 22 in Pottawatomie County. Kagay said the trial was taken to Pottawatomie County because of the attention the case has received locally.
Regarding a triple homicide case from Feb. 2023, Kagay said the suspect Kyle Tyler's case was continued.
"Defense will, for a variety of reasons, look to move the case back because they need more time to prepare," Kagay said. "In this case, that happened. They filed a motion with the court, they asked for more time. They needed to go out and do some research and put on the best defense they can."
Tyler has been in custody throughout the process. Kagay said when a defendant is in custody the court is more likely to grant a continuance.
With January being Human Trafficking Awareness month, Kagay gave an update on what the county is doing to bolster its efforts. Kagay said with the help of a federal grant, the county will be able to hire a new human trafficking intelligence analyst and a task force coordinator to work alongside the county special investigator.
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