Kingman man sentenced to life for murder, arson

 

UPDATE 12:45 pm: KINGMAN – (August 5, 2013) – A Kingman man was sentenced today to life in prison following his conviction in June for murder, arson and child endangerment, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.

Brett Seacat, 37, was sentenced to life in the Kansas Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole for 31 years and 3 months by Chief Judge Larry Solomon in Kingman County District Court. A Kingman County jury convicted Seacat in June of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated arson and two counts of aggravated child endangerment following a three-week trial. Seacat was charged with the crimes following the 2011 death of his wife, Vashti Seacat, and the burning of the couple’s home in Kingman.

The case was investigated by the Kingman Police Department, Kingman County Sheriff’s Office, Kansas Fire Marshal’s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Assistant Attorneys General Amy Hanley and Jessica Domme of Schmidt’s office prosecuted the case, along with Kingman County Attorney Matthew Ricke and Associate Counsel Tom Bath.

(AP) — Attorneys for a former Kansas police instructor accused of killing his wife are trying to bolster their suggestion that the death could have been a suicide.

A handwriting expert returned to the stand Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of Brett Seacat for the April 2011 shooting of 34-year-old Vashti Seacat. The husband is also charged with aggravated arson and two counts of child endangerment for allegedly setting fire to the couple’s Kingman home while their two young sons were sleeping.

Handwriting expert Avis Odenbaugh testified that the person who wrote entries in Vashti Seacat’s journal also wrote a suicide note found in her car. That note promised the sons that she would be watching them from heaven.

A prosecution witness testified earlier that someone else wrote the note.