{"id":208446,"date":"2026-04-24T15:57:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208446\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:57:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:57:55","slug":"kansas-supreme-court-upholds-murder-conviction-in-manhattan-slaying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208446\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Supreme Court upholds murder conviction in Manhattan slaying"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday announced in a unanimous decision that it has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of a man in connection with a 2022 homicide in the Aggieville district of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Kansas Supreme Court officials said Tremelle Montgomery\u2019s convictions in connection with first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and three counts of aggravated assault were upheld.<\/p>\n

According to a news release, Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall, \u201cwriting for a unanimous Court, assumed the Riley County District Court erred by not giving a jury instruction for voluntary manslaughter based on imperfect self-defense, but such error was harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Kansas Supreme Court on Friday announced it has upheld the murder conviction of Tremelle Montgomery, 23, in a 2022 homicide in Manhattan.(Submitted)<\/p>\n

The Kansas Supreme Court also held that the district court did not err by declining to give a self-defense instruction pursuant to state statute, \u201cbecause no evidence showed a reasonable person would have perceived the use of deadly force as necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kansas Supreme Court then found that the record, when viewed in its totality, \u201cwould allow a rational fact-finder to find that Montgomery committed attempted first-degree murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consequently, the Kansas Supreme Court held that \u201cthe State properly charged Montgomery with attempted first-degree murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kansas Supreme Court then found that the district court committed judicial comment error by telling a juror that the maximum sentence in Montgomery\u2019s case could be life in prison. <\/p>\n

However, the Kansas Supreme Court found this comment was immediately properly addressed and the error was \u201charmless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having assumed one error and found another, the Kansas Supreme Court determined that \u2014 even considering those errors together \u2014 their cumulative impact on Montgomery\u2019s trial was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n

In the incident for which Montgomery was convicted<\/a>, Joshua J. Wardi, 21, of Fort Riley, was shot around 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 5, 2022, outside a bar near 12th and Moro streets in Manhattan. <\/p>\n

Wardi, who was in the U.S. Army and stationed at nearby Fort Riley, was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

One Riley County police officer responding to the scene rendered aid to Ward while two other officers chased Montgomery, officials said.<\/p>\n

As Montgomery, now 23, turned a corner onto 12th Street, officials said, he was shot in the leg by a Riley County police officer who fired two rounds. Montgomery then stopped on 12th Street midway between Moro and Laramie streets.<\/p>\n

After he was wounded, Montgomery was transported to Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan before being transferred to a Topeka hospital.<\/p>\n

Montgomery was later booked into the Riley County Jail, where bond was set for $1.5 million.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to prison on Oct. 24, 2023. and is an inmate at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.<\/p>\n

Additional details weren\u2019t immediately available.<\/p>\n

Check wibw.com<\/a> later for more information as it becomes available.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WIBW. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday announced in a unanimous decision that it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2976,2803,2149,75,84,83,9,24,63,104,3132,25018,82676,82675],"class_list":{"0":"post-208446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-conviction","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-kansas","11":"tag-manhattan","12":"tag-manhattan-headlines","13":"tag-manhattan-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-police","18":"tag-riley-county","19":"tag-supreme","20":"tag-tremelle-montgomery","21":"tag-upheld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}