Wichita mother convicted of killing her child 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 the possibility of parole after serving 25 years.

Kimberly Compass and her attorney argued for a more lenient sentence — including something that would allow her to avoid prison — while her son’s father’s family asked for a longer sentence, at least 40 years. But the judge had only one sentencing option for first-degree murder under Kansas law, and he laid it out for them at Compass’ sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon.

“That’s the sentence I’m required to impose. I can’t go higher than what the victim’s family wants, and I can’t go lower,” Sedgwick District Judge Jeffrey Goering said of the life sentence.

Compass, 28, plans to appeal, his lawyer told the court.

The sentence brings to a close a child emotional death case that took more than five years to conclude.

Enough Methadone to Kill an Adult

Zayden JayNesahkluah, age 2, 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 brother and one of Compass’ friends.

Prosecutors said that before and during his stay at the motel, Compass mishandled three bottles of methadone prescribed to him by a local addiction clinic to help him kick his heroin habit and that Zayden somehow ingested a lethal dose of it.

The boy’s DNA was found on the neck of one of Compass’s medication bottles, which had child-resistant caps, according to testimony heard at his trial in May 2021. Investigators also found a juice bottle and a can of Coca-Cola laced with methadone in the motel room.

Prosecutors say Compass kept the powerful synthetic opioid in a broken child’s kit in the motel room, within reach of her children, knowing the dangers she faced because she had been repeatedly warned by the addiction clinic. They also suggested at trial that Compass may have intentionally “dosed” Zayden with methadone because he was unruly and “difficult for her to manage.”

According to trial testimony, the boy had enough methadone in his system to kill an adult.

Compass claimed she had no idea how Zayden ingested the drug and had no idea when he took the drug. She accused a friend of killing her son with the methadone because he was angry with her. The friend had stayed in the motel room with Compass and her children and found Zayden unconscious in a pool of vomit. Compass’s defense called witnesses during the trial and in later hearings who claimed the friend had admitted to poisoning the boy, but neither the jurors nor the judge found their accounts convincing.

The friend testified at trial that he warned Compass to keep his medication where his children could not reach it and said Zayden was already acting lethargic when he met Compass before the motel stay.

Compass maintains his innocence

Jurors convicted Compass of one count of first-degree murder after a multi-day trial in May 2021. The crime underlying the murder charge is aggravated child endangerment, which prosecutors say Compass engaged in when she failed to properly secure her drugs. In Kansas, the only sentence a defendant convicted of first-degree murder can receive is life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Judges do not have the authority to order more or less time or impose probation instead.

Compass continued to maintain her innocence Wednesday, insisting her friend was responsible 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 additional time behind bars while the person she believes was truly responsible is free.

“How can you live with yourself and let this all be okay?” Compass asked, saying she had no way of earning money to buy a headstone for her son’s grave and that since her arrest she had been subjected to “nothing but abuse” from inmates who beat her and called her a “child killer.”

Defense attorney Lacy Gilmour told the judge that Compass’ time in prison had been “a nightmare”: She suffered a broken jaw and several broken bones and had not received bereavement services or proper medical, dental or mental health care. Before her arrest, Compass “was doing everything she was supposed to do,” 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 made during her trial.

But “she trusted someone she thought was her friend too much” and “now lives every day” knowing her child is gone, Gilmour said. She argued that the aggravated murder law was unconstitutional and asked for a reduced sentence, saying “no one believes my client deliberately set out to harm this child.”

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

“It’s an appropriate sentence in this case,” Osburn said of the life sentence.

Child’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 is constantly being attacked” in prison.

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

“I know she’s been in prison for a long time. But every day she gets up and gets out of her cell, she eats and she gets to watch TV, go to the library, be around other people,” Sherry Jay Nesahkluah said. “That boy … has been buried and he’s never going to come out.”

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