HUTCHINSON, Kan. – It’s been a year now since the Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and sentence for a Hutchinson man who was ordered to prison for 40-years for his involvement in the murder of Joshua Haines.
Anthony Waller was given the sentence by Judge Tim Chambers back in April of 2011, after he denied the judgment of acquittal and a motion for a new trial by Defense Attorney Carl Maughn.
Waller filed a Habeas Corpus motion recently in District Court seeking relief from his conviction and sentence.
He alleges in his petition that he didn’t have effective counsel at trial at also at the appellate level. He also claims that the state used perjured testimony and that the judge denied exculpatory evidence at trial.
A status hearing is scheduled for Friday in front of Judge Tim Chambers, however there hearings are always subject to change.
The case centers on the victim being beaten and strangled in an apartment at 12th & Severance, and his body placed in his vehicle. An autopsy revealed that Haines had been struck approximately 70-times and strangled. Waller then bound Haines with duct tape and video game cords before dragging his body out of the apartment. The victim was stuffed into the passenger side of his car and the vehicle was abandoned a few blocks away. All this occurring on April 10, 2010. Waller was upset because he believed Haines had burglarized his apartment weeks earlier.
Two other suspects in the case are also serving time, that being 33-year-old Jose Delacruz and 37-year-old Vasie Coons. Coons is serving a 12-year sentence, while Delacruz was found not guilty of murder, but was convicted of aggravated robbery and is serving seven years in prison.