KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 19-year-old man who allegedly killed a Leavenworth High School senior after a fight stemming from a pickup basketball game has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Eric Miller, 18, a Pioneers football player, died Tuesday at an area hospital from injuries sustained in a physical altercation Monday night outside the basement gym at the Leavenworth Hotel, according to police.
Ismael Caleb Salinas-Richardson has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Miller’s homicide.
Leavenworth County District Attorney Todd Thompson announced the charge late Thursday morning and explained the decision regarding the offense level.
Thompson said a murder charge requires a determination that the suspect acted with “a desire to kill or cause serious bodily injury to another,” showed “extreme indifference to the value of human life” and consciously disregarded “an immense danger” to another person’s life.
By contract, manslaughter is an unintentional killing and “involuntary manslaughter is a killing done recklessly,” Thompson said in a statement via email.
He said the probable cause in the case did not support a murder charge, which is why Salinas-Richardson has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. He faces 31 to 136 months, if convicted, depending on past criminal history and other factors based on Kansas sentencing guidelines.
Leavenworth Police Chief Pat Kitchens said the suspect, now identified as Salinas-Richardson, was arrested overnight in Grandview.
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