Drunk Wichita dad let toddler go through locked pool fence & drown. He’s going to prison

A Wichita father has been ordered to serve life in prison plus 18 months in the 2020 drowning death of his 2-year-old son and the endangerment of the child’s older brother at a south-side mobile home park pool.

Police have said William K. Kabutu let his toddler, Omari Garcia, and the boy’s then 4-year-old brother squeeze through the fence of a locked swimming pool area at 1904 E. 54th St. South, near Hydraulic, on July 7, 2020, while he stayed outside. Kabutu was drunk at the time; officers who responded to a call from a passerby about Omari floating in the pool water noted that Kabutu was “very impaired” with alcohol, had difficulty standing and was unable to walk steadily.

Kabutu told police he took the boys to the pool over their mother’s objections because he “did not want to be the ‘bad guy’” and refuse. Omari went into the water but couldn’t keep his head above the surface, Wichita police have said. Firefighters pulled his lifeless body from the pool around 10 p.m.

In a 2020 interview after the boy’s death, Omari’s mother told The Eagle that her sons hadn’t seen their father in months until the day he took them to the pool and Omari drowned.

Authorities arrested and charged Kabutu within days.

In February 2023, prosecutors tried Kabutu and jurors found him guilty of a count of first-degree felony murder and two counts of aggravated child endangerment. Kabutu had pleaded not guilty.

On Thursday, Sedgwick County District Judge Christopher Magana ordered Kabutu to serve life in prison on the murder charge and nine months for each count of child endangerment, said Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. The judge told Kabutu he must serve the sentences consecutively, or back to back, and that he would have to be paroled on the murder charge before he could start serving the 18-month portion of the sentence, Dillon said.

Kabutu, 47, will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years, Dillon said.

Toddler who drowned liked to sing and play with cousins and big brothers, family said

Father of toddler who drowned in trailer park pool charged with murder, endangerment