TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas Court of Appeals Friday upheld the sentence for a Hutchinson man convicted for the killing of another man on Halloween night in 2012.
22-year-old Isaac Beltran was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison by Judge Tim Chambers who said the aggravating factors required him to give the aggravated sentence of 154 months. He says the aggravating factor was the fact that Beltran was on community corrections when the shooting of Dustin Brooks occurred. The judge says he shouldn’t have had a gun in his possession because of a previous felony conviction for possession of cocaine.
Beltran was convicted for shooting 26-year-old Brooks in the alley behind the home where Beltran lived at 203 North Cleveland on Halloween night in 2012. Brooks suffered a gunshot wound to the torso and died after emergency surgery failed at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center.
There was some question on appeal of whether the judge should have sentenced him to the aggravated number without a jury deciding guilt and also questions of his criminal history. The appeals court ruling those issues had no merit.