By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Kansas Supreme Court affirmed the 2020 conviction of a Hays woman convicted of aiding and abetting felony murder in a ruling announced Friday.
The Supreme Court affirmed Kylie Jo Elizabeth Waldschmidt's convictions in Ellis County District Court for aiding and abetting felony murder and interference with a law officer after the killing of Diego Gallaway by Ryan Thompson.
She was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to court records.
Waldschmidt was found guilty for her role in the 2018 killing of 26-year-Gallaway in Hays. Gallaway was found shot to death on Feb. 27, 2018, in the area of 27th Street and Indian Trail in Hays.
SEE RELATED STORY: Hays woman found guilty for her role in murder
According to court documents, Waldschmidt and Ryan Paul Thompson, 36, obtained a gun and went to the 2700 block of Indian Trail to confront Gallaway about money.
During the confrontation, Thompson pulled out a gun, put Gallaway in a headlock and shot him in the back of the head, authorities said.
For his role in the murder, Thompson pleaded guilty to intentional second-degree murder and drug possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was sentenced to 23 years and 11 months in prison.
In a majority opinion written by Justice Dan Biles, the court agreed with Waldschmidt that prosecutorial error occurred but that none of the errors required reversal, individually or collectively.
The court held that the district court properly declined to dismiss Waldschmidt’s felony-murder charge under the merger doctrine, that the district court should have given a self-defense instruction, but that omission was not clearly erroneous, and that the district court did not violate her right to present her defense in sustaining an objection to a question about her intent.
It then rejected Waldschmidt's cumulative error claim, reasoning unpreserved instructional issues must be clearly erroneous before they can be included in a cumulative error analysis, disapproving of prior case law stating otherwise, and reiterating it already held the prosecutorial errors were not harmful.
Justice Evelyn Wilson dissented. In her view, the prosecutor's errors alone required reversal and disapproved of the majority's cumulative error holding, reasoning it repudiated longstanding assumptions without the parties' input.