Two men sentenced for roles in deadly drug deal robbery in southeast Wichita
Two Wichita men are headed to prison for their roles in a fatal drug deal in 2019.
Orlando Howard, 19, and Marcus L. Lamar, 23, were sentenced Monday by Sedgwick County District Judge David Dahl, according to court records and Dan Dillon, a spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. Howard pleaded guilty on April 8, 2022, to one count of second-degree murder in the Aug. 19, 2019, shooting death of 33-year-old Jerome S. Armbeck and one count of aggravated robbery for the armed robbery of Armbeck’s brother, Joshua A. Armbeck.
He will serve 13 years, 9 months in prison, Dillon said.
Lamar pleaded guilty on Feb. 15 to aggravated robbery and criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Dahl imposed a five-year sentence in his case, Dillon said.
Wichita police have said the men were part of a group who decided to rob Joshua Armbeck of his backpack at gunpoint after meeting him to buy an ounce of marijuana for $140. Jerome Armbeck was killed in an open field in the 4600 block of East Boston, near Harry and Oliver, during a foot chase after his brother asked him to help catch the thieves.
Howard, who was 15 at the time, was prosecuted as an adult after initially being charged as a juvenile. His attorney in a written motion asking for probation said Howard did not set up the robbery, had “absolutely no plan . . . to be involved in any criminal activity” and was told by his co-defendants to hold the gun “because he was the youngest.”
It is The Eagle’s policy to name defendants who were juveniles at the time of a crime if prosecutors charge them as adults.
Two other men were involved in the robbery, police have said. Pierce A. Jackson, 22, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and will be sentenced April 21, court records show. Tairyce A. Jones, 21, was sentenced in March to five years in prison for one count of aggravated robbery following a guilty plea last summer.
The victim’s brother, Joshua Armbeck, is serving three years of probation for attempted distribution of marijuana, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in June 2020.
