WICHITA, Kan. – After the Kansas Court of Appeals upheld the conviction for 35-year-old Jose Delacruz for contempt of court, he apparently sought a review with the Kansas Supreme Court, and they accepted.
Delecruz was found guilty of the charge for refusing to testify in a murder trial of co-defendant Anthony Waller for the killing of Joshua Haines. He was sentenced to 9-years in prison in that case by Judge Joe McCarville. The sentence was also ordered to run consecutive to the nearly 7-years he received in the aggravated robbery case in association with the murder. He had been found “not guilty” of murder in that case, but convicted of the aggravated robbery charge against him.
A hearing over the contempt case will be heard by the states high court on Thursday morning. District Attorney Keith Schroeder says they will have oral arguments at that time.
The murder case center on Haines being savagely beaten and strangled in a Hutchinson apartment and then placed in his own car and driven to a nearby street where it was found later that day.
A co-defendant in the murder case, Vassie Coons entered pleas to aggravated robbery, possession of cocaine, possession of methamphetamine, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana while the murder charge against him was dropped. He was given the maximum sentence for the aggravated robbery conviction. He was ordered to prison for nearly 12-years.
Waller, the man the state suspected of being the main person responsible for the murder was sentenced to 40-years in prison for his involvement in the murder which occurred on April 10, 2010.