Man can’t withdraw guilty pleas in 2 Topeka killings

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Supreme Court has blocked a man’s attempt to withdraw his guilty pleas after he was sentenced to serve at least 50 years in prison over the July 2018 murders of a woman and her cousin.

The high court on Friday rejected Matthew Douglas Hutto’s claim that his court-appointed attorney’s advice to plead guilty to two premeditated first-degree murder charges meant that the lawyer did not adequately represent him.

Hutto was part of a group living with Brad Sportsman in the town of Greenleaf that traveled to Topeka to kill Sportsman’s estranged wife.

A 17-year-old cousin was staying with her, and they were beaten and stabbed to death.