A Wichita woman was sentenced to 165 months in prison after a jury convicted her of second-degree murder in the shooting death of her boyfriend, authorities said. The man was found wounded in the street on April 23, 2024, and later died at a hospital.
The sentence ends a major chapter in a case that began with a daytime shooting on a residential block in northeast Wichita and stretched through more than a year of court hearings. Prosecutors said the killing grew out of a dispute during a drive in a Jeep and turned into gunfire after the couple stopped near North Minnesota Avenue. The defense pointed to the woman’s statements that she had been attacked, but the jury found she intentionally killed him. Court records and officials also described the verdict as carrying a domestic violence finding, a label tied to crimes committed against someone in a close relationship.
Sedgwick County District Court Judge Tyler Roush imposed the 165-month sentence, which equals 13 years and nine months, for 21-year-old Amunique Schare Cavitt, prosecutors said. The victim, Norman Eugene “Tray” Carter III, was in his 30s. Police said officers responded around midday on April 23, 2024, to the 1400 block of North Minnesota Avenue after reports of a shooting. First responders found Carter with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. Officers began lifesaving efforts until emergency crews arrived and took him to a Wichita hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:01 p.m., police said. Family notices later said Carter died on his birthday, a detail that followed the case from the first court appearances to sentencing.
Investigators said the confrontation started earlier that morning while Cavitt and Carter were traveling together. In interviews cited in court filings, Cavitt told detectives Carter slapped her, hit her in the head and tried to strangle her during an argument inside the vehicle. Police noted scratches on her neck, according to accounts of a probable cause affidavit described in later reporting, but public summaries did not detail other injuries. Prosecutors argued that what happened next on the street mattered most: witnesses said Carter got out of the Jeep near the intersection of Minnesota Avenue and 13th Street, and one witness reported it looked like Cavitt tried to run him over. Authorities said Cavitt then got out and fired multiple times at close range. Investigators recovered shell casings in the grass near where Carter fell, and prosecutors alleged the shooting continued after he was down.
From the start, the case turned on competing narratives about fear, force and intent. Cavitt’s account described a sudden struggle and threats inside the Jeep, and those claims became a central part of the defense position as the case moved toward trial. Prosecutors, however, focused on witness statements and physical evidence that they said showed escalation rather than self-defense, including the report that the Jeep moved toward Carter after he left the vehicle and the number of shots fired. Police and court updates did not publicly describe any weapon found on Carter at the scene, and officials have not released a full public timeline that settles every disputed moment. Those gaps left jurors to weigh testimony, forensic evidence and the words each side used to describe the seconds before the gunfire.
Cavitt was arrested the same day as the shooting, and prosecutors initially charged her with first-degree murder. At her first court appearance that week, a judge set bond at $1 million, and court updates said she remained in custody as the case proceeded. Months of hearings followed as attorneys argued over evidence and trial issues. When jurors heard the case in late 2025, they were instructed on more than one possible outcome, including the top charge and a lesser homicide count. In December 2025, the jury convicted Cavitt of second-degree intentional murder, and officials said the verdict included a domestic violence finding. That finding became part of how prosecutors described the case publicly, saying the killing happened within an intimate relationship and followed a dispute that began in close quarters.
The shooting site sat on a residential stretch of northeast Wichita, where midday traffic and nearby homes put potential witnesses close to the violence. Police described arriving to a chaotic scene, with bystanders present and a wounded man in the street. Officers shifted from emergency medical care to securing the area for investigators, a common challenge in public shootings where evidence can be disturbed quickly. The shell casings recovered near Carter’s body and witness descriptions of the Jeep’s movement became key pieces for detectives trying to reconstruct the encounter. Prosecutors said the evidence showed intent, while the defense argued the confrontation and the woman’s account of being attacked gave context to her actions.
In the months after the killing, Carter’s family described him in memorial notices as a devoted father and a creative, energetic presence in their lives. That portrait entered the public discussion as the case drew attention for both the setting and the timing on his birthday. At sentencing, court summaries did not detail a lengthy public statement from Cavitt, and officials did not release a full transcript of what each side argued in the courtroom. Still, the sentence followed Kansas guidelines that tie prison terms to the severity of the offense and a person’s criminal history. The judge’s order sends Cavitt to the Kansas Department of Corrections, authorities said.
The case now moves into the post-conviction phase, where a defendant can ask appellate courts to review trial rulings, evidence decisions, or jury instructions. Public reports about the sentencing did not describe an immediate appeal filing, and any challenge would follow a separate timetable. For now, the conviction and the 165-month sentence remain in place, closing the trial court stage that began with the April 23, 2024, shooting and ended with the February 2026 punishment.
Author note: Last updated February 17, 2026.