Wichita neck slashing death nets Pittsburg man 20-year prison sentence: court records
A Pittsburg man convicted of fatally slashing the neck of his sister’s ex-boyfriend at a Wichita home in 2020 has been ordered to serve 20 years, two months in prison, according to court records.
Sedgwick County District Court Judge Tyler Roush sentenced 27-year-old Morgan Lee Prager in the January 2020 death of 19-year-old Vincent C. Venturella. A probable cause affidavit released by the court says Prager drove to Wichita on Jan. 11, 2020, to confront Venturella over “harassing messages” he and his family received after Venturella received a favorable ruling in a Crawford County case involving a protective order filed by Prager’s sister.
Prager slashed Venturella’s neck around 5 p.m. during a scuffle outside of Venturella’s Wichita home, in the 200 block of North Spruce, while the victim’s young siblings were inside, the affidavit says.
He then left and tossed the pocketknife used in the deadly attack out of his car window on the drive back to Pittsburg, where he immediately apologized to his sister and turned himself into police.
Venturella, who asked his 11-year-old sister to call 911 after he stumbled back into his house, died at Wesley Medical Center two days later. He suffered cuts to both of his jugular veins, cuts on his wrist and hands, and six puncture wounds to his back and side, records say.
Prager pleaded guilty in December 2021 to counts of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
