HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KWCH) – More than two years after his arrest and two months after his conviction, a Phoenix man in his late 70s faces life in prison in connection with a more-than-40-year-old cold case in Hutchinson.
The Reno County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Jerry Allen, 75 at the time of his arrest in March 2024, was in court on Monday, where a judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole for 20 years. The sentencing follows his conviction in August on one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in the first degree.
A jury found Allen guilty in the 1982 death of 44-year-old Michael McKeown. Court documents detail Allen’s involvement in the case as a co-conspirator in which he agreed with two others, Ron Solida and Janice McKewon, to commit or assist in the commission of a crime…