TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court affirmed on Friday convictions for first-degree murder and battery stemming from a 2015 shooting at the Roxy bar in Overland Park.
The court ruled that Dale Willis’ claims of jury instruction errors were barred because he had requested and agreed to those jury instructions.
The state’s highest court also said none of the statements made by the state during the trial constituted prosecutorial error and the court properly admitted testimony from an agent with the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The case stems from dispute that erupted at the bar on Sept. 16, 2015 that ended with Jurl Carter being fatally shot multiple times in his car. Willis defenses at trial were that his brother acted alone in the shooting or that alternatively that if he had acted in concert with his brother, he did so in self-defense.
Willis got a hard-50 sentence for the murder conviction and a concurrent six-month sentence for the battery conviction following a jury trial.
The appeals court found no sentencing errors.