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Man gets 4.5 years in prison for leaving baby in I-135 canal in south Wichita

<i>KAKE via CNN Newsource</i><br/>The Sedgwick County district attorney's office said Judge Tyler Roush sentenced Vincent Perez to 54 months with two years of post-release supervision. He pleaded guilty in December to aggravated child endangerment and aggravated battery.
KAKE via CNN Newsource
The Sedgwick County district attorney's office said Judge Tyler Roush sentenced Vincent Perez to 54 months with two years of post-release supervision. He pleaded guilty in December to aggravated child endangerment and aggravated battery.

By KAKE Staff

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    WICHITA, Kan (KAKE) — A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for leaving his baby in the I-135 canal in south Wichita.

The Sedgwick County district attorney’s office said Judge Tyler Roush on Thursday sentenced Vincent Perez to 54 months with two years of post-release supervision. He pleaded guilty in December to aggravated child endangerment and aggravated battery.

In the early morning hours of July 23, 2024, officers were flagged down by two people near Harry and Hydraulic who reported seeing a man abandoned his child and walked into Linwood Park.

One of the witnesses, a gas station employee, told the officer that the man had been in the gas station for about an hour prior to the incident. The other witness reported he saw the man walking toward the park and went to confront him. The suspect reportedly pulled a small axe or hatchet and told the witness to get away from the child.

An officer searched Linwood Park and found a stroller tipped over on a hill to the north of the Harry Street underpass before I-135. The officer kept walking along Harry and found a baby carrier and a lunch box, which contained a wrench.

Then, shortly before 2 p.m. on July 23, about 12 hours after the baby was last seen, a woman called 911 to report she spotted a small child in the I-135 canal near Pawnee.

“I saw a lifelike doll. I’m like, ‘That’s interesting.’ And then the next thing I know, it threw its hands up. I’m like, ‘That’s not a doll, that is a real life baby.’ So I shuffle over to the right lane to the shoulder and call 911 and the cops came out in enormous force,” said Vickie Wyant, who located the baby. “I mean, I was so nervous. I didn’t know if the baby was okay, how long it’s been down there. It just had a diaper on.”

The child was taken into protective custody. An exam at Wesley Medical Center revealed 29 injuries, most of which were bruises.

Prerez was booked into jail on July 24 and has been held there since.

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