A jury found a 43-year-old Wichita man — who previously had spent about 20 years in prison for murder — guilty of first-degree murder in the 2019 Christmas Eve killing of his girlfriend.
Jurors, on Friday, deliberated for just over 4.5 hours before finding Ahmad Khaasanouva Bey guilty of the murder charge and criminal possession of a weapon by a felon in the killing of 41-year-old Melinda K. Sprague, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office.
Bey is scheduled to be sentenced March 22.
Sprague’s body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car behind a business in the 1500 block of East Harry a couple days after she was killed. A coworker reported her missing when she didn’t show up for work on Christmas Eve.
Bey’s ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Lynne Waner, was previously charged with concealing, destroying or altering evidence in the killing, but that charge was later dropped . Waner told police she drove Sprague’s car and left it behind the business, according to an affidavit released in the case.