TOPEKA. Kan. — The Kansas Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of the former Kansas Law 
Enforcement Training Center instructor who was convicted of killing his estranged wife, then setting their Kingman home on fire.
The Courts ruled that Brett Seacat’s claims his wife tried to commit suicide in the past was not enough to overcome the overwhelming evidence against him. Secat wanted to issue brought up in his trial , but the request was denied. Secat was found guilty of shooting Vashti Seacat in her bedroom then setting the home ablaze in April of 2011. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years.
All of Seacat’s issues before the court of appeals went to the evidence that the district court allowed the jury to hear—the admission of certain testimony by witnesses for the State and the exclusion of certain evidence proffered by Seacat, namely the mental state of his ex wife.
Seacat challenged the trial court’s exclusion of evidence relating to Vashti’s putative depression, which he contends would have bolstered his theory that she took her own life.