Wichita mom convicted of murdering toddler tells judge her life sentence is ‘not fair’

A Wichita mother convicted of murdering her toddler by exposing him to methadone has been sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after she serves 25 years.

Kimberly Compass and her lawyer argued for a more lenient term — including something that would keep her out of prison — while her son’s paternal family asked for longer, at least 40 years. But the judge only had one sentencing option for first-degree felony murder under Kansas law, and he told them all that during Compass’ sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon.

“This is the sentence that I am required to impose. I can’t go higher as the victim’s family wants me to do, and I can’t go lower,” Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Goering said of the life term.

Compass, 28, plans to appeal, her lawyer said in court.

The sentence caps an emotional child death case that has taken more than five years to conclude.

Enough methadone to kill an adult

Two-year-old Zayden JayNesahkluah was found dead the morning of May 31, 2019, in Room 19 of the Sunset Motel, 2328 S. Broadway in Wichita, where he had spent the night with his mother, a sibling and one of Compass’ friends.

Prosecutors said leading up to and during the motel stay, Compass mishandled three bottles of methadone she’d been prescribed by a local addiction clinic to help her kick a heroin habit and Zayden somehow ingested a lethal dose of it.

The boy’s DNA was found on the mouth of one of Compass’ prescription bottles that had child safety caps, according to testimony at her May 2021 trial . Investigators also found a bottle of juice and a can of Coca-Cola mixed with methadone in the motel room.

Prosecutors say Compass kept the powerful synthetic opioid in a child’s pencil box with a broken lock in the motel room where her children could reach it, knowing the dangers because she’d been warned repeatedly by the addiction clinic. They also suggested at trial that Compass might have “dosed” Zayden with the methadone on purpose because he was rambunctious and “hard for her to handle.”

The boy had enough methadone in his system to kill an adult , according to trial testimony.

Compass, meanwhile, claimed she has no idea how or when Zayden ingested the drug and has accused a friend of killing her son with the methadone because he was mad at her. That friend had been staying in the motel room with Compass and her children and found Zayden unresponsive in a pool of his own vomit. Compass’ defense called witnesses during the trial and at later hearings who claimed the friend had admitted to poisoning the boy, but neither jurors nor the judge found their stories persuasive.

The friend testified at trial that he warned Compass to keep her drugs where her children couldn’t reach them and said Zayden was already acting lethargic when he met up with Compass before the motel stay.

Compass maintains her innocence

Jurors convicted Compass of one count of first-degree felony murder after a multi-day trial in May 2021. The felony crime that underlies the murder count is aggravated child endangerment, which prosecutors say Compass was engaging in when she didn’t properly secure her drugs. In Kansas, the only sentence a defendant convicted of first-degree felony murder can receive is life in prison with parole eligibility after 25 years. Judges have no discretion to order more or less time or impose probation instead.

Compass continued to maintain her innocence Wednesday, insisting the friend was to blame for Zayden’s death. In a fiery speech, she told the judge the law was wrong and it was “not fair” that she should have to serve any more time behind bars when the person she thinks is really at fault is walking free.

“How do you guys even live with yourself and let this be okay?” Compass demanded, saying she has no way to make money to buy a headstone for her son’s grave and that since her arrest has been subjected to “nothing but abuse” by inmates who beat her and call her names like “child killer.”

Defense attorney Lacy Gilmour told the judge Compass’ time in jail had been “a nightmare” where she suffered a broken jaw and bones and hasn’t been given bereavement services or appropriate medical, dental or mental health care. Before her arrest, Compass was “doing everything that she was supposed to be doing,” including going to beauty school and overcoming a tumultuous childhood that left her in foster care, Gilmour said. Compass also lived on the streets at times, according to comments at her trial.

But “she was too trusting of someone she thought was her friend” and now “lives every day” knowing her child is gone, Gilmour said. She argued the state’s felony murder statute is unconstitutional and asked for a reduced term, saying “no one thinks that my client deliberately set out to hurt this child.”

In her comments, Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorney Alice Osburn reminded the court that jurors found Compass guilty after hearing evidence at her trial and that Compass presented more evidence of her purported innocence at a later hearing where she sought a new trial, which the judge denied.

“This is an appropriate sentence in this case,” Osburn said of the life term.

Toddler’s grandmother speaks in court

Zayden’s paternal grandmother, speaking on behalf of her family in court Wednesday, said they “do not condone or support” any violence directed at Compass and are “appalled that she was constantly being attacked” in jail.

But, she said, they do hold her responsible for Zayden’s death because she chose to use drugs, keep the methadone in an unsecured box and didn’t check on the boy throughout the night even though she was awake and on her phone.

“I know she’s been in jail for a long time. But every day she gets up and walks out of that jail cell and she eats and she has access to watch TV, go to the library, be around other people,” Sherry JayNesahkluah said. “That boy ... was laid in the grave and he will never walk out.”

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