Wichita man admits murdering wheelchair-bound cousin found stuffed in crawl space

A Wichita man charged with stabbing his wheelchair-bound cousin to death with a throwing knife before tucking the dead body in a basement crawl space has pleaded guilty to an amended count of second-degree intentional murder, according to Sedgwick County District Court records.

Jason A. Payne, 41, faces more than 18 to 20 1/2 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 28 by Judge Jeffrey Syrios.

He pleaded guilty last week after his preliminary hearing, court records show. Originally, prosecutors charged Payne with first-degree premeditated murder in the Jan. 13, 2021, killing of 34-year-old Michael Montgomery at their fourplex apartment near 13th and Oliver.

In an interview with police after the murder, Payne admitted to stabbing Montgomery repeatedly in a fit of rage sparked by his cousin’s alleged confession to molesting relatives in the past, an affidavit released by the court last year says.

He then stuffed Montgomery’s body into a bag, stashed it in the basement and cleaned up the knife and blood from his living room floor. Payne told police he drank and used drugs until he decided to surrender himself.

Authorities responding to a 6 a.m. 911 call about a disoriented man running into traffic at 13th and Oliver found Payne lying in the street, saying that he’d “killed his cousin,” the affidavit says. Police later found Montgomery’s empty wheelchair at the apartment, in the 900 block of North Oliver, and his body zipped into a “large black nylon style” bag that had been shoved in the crawl space.

Montgomery died from multiple stab wounds to his head and torso, according to his autopsy report.