A Parsons man who was facing a potential life sentence for first-degree murder for shooting and killing a Pittsburg man pleaded to involuntary manslaughter and is now facing five years in prison.
Raymond A.A. Rigazio, 29, was charged in Labette County District Court with first-degree murder, or felony murder, and distribution of 25 grams of marijuana or less. The murder charge was an off-grid crime that could have resulted in life in prison upon conviction.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case. Robert Myers is representing Rigazio.
Last week, Rigazio pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter, a mid-level felony. The plea acknowledges that on June 20, 2018, Rigazio killed Tyjuan M. Campbell, 21, during the commission of a “lawful act in an unlawful manner in Labette County, Kansas.” He also pleaded no contest to aggravated assault, a lower-level felony, for placing Campbell in “reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm with the intent to commit a felony…” As part of the plea, Rigazio agrees to serve a controlling five years in prison without trying to appeal or file other legal actions related to the sentence. He also agrees to “provide a truthful proffer, under oath, about the facts and circumstances known to the defendant about the death of Tyjuan Campbell on June 20, 2018, after the plea is entered and prior to sentencing.”
Rigazio faces 42 months in prison on a separate case for drug distribution. That term will be consecutive to the involuntary manslaughter term, giving him about 8.5 years to serve, minus the time he’s spent in jail while his cases were pending.
The drug case relates to a Jan. 2, 2018, incident at 1318 S. 26th, which is across a field from 2612 Kimball, and found 11.14 pounds of marijuana, five pounds of it packaged in vacuum-sealed bags and the rest in Mason jars. Police also seized a .40 caliber handgun with numerous rounds of ammo. He faced 42 months in prison if the judge accepted the plea recommendations. He was to be sentenced on Feb. 6, 2023, but didn’t show up. The murder case was filed Jan. 6, 2023. Rigazio left the area and was free until arrested on Jan. 31 in Joplin.
The shooting happened between 5 and 5:27 p.m. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018, at 2612 Kimball. Police found Campbell of Pittsburg dead in a Mendota Creek apartment. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation responded to assist.
Jamaica Kindrick lived in the one-bedroom apartment where police found Campbell. She testified at a preliminary hearing this summer that she wasn’t there to see the shooting because she left that morning and returned late that afternoon. She had lost the key to her apartment in the weeks before so the door was left unlocked. Kindrick’s aunt told her she smelled gunsmoke in the apartments as Kindrick approached the building. Kindrick opened the outside door to access the stairs that would take her to the second floor and her apartment door. As she did, Rigazio ran out with blood dripping down his neck.
He got into the back seat of a white Chevrolet Tahoe and the driver left. She testified that she had a family connection to Rigazio, whose nickname is Bandz.
Kindrick said she climbed the stairs, stopped at the first landing and saw red shoes in her doorway with a handgun next to them. She testified that she ran down the stairs. When she returned to her apartment, she saw two women outside it, Cheyenne Swenson was one of them. The other didn’t testify. Kindrick testified that the second woman walked up to her apartment, returned and told Kindrick there was a dead person in her apartment. The woman went up a second time to look for keys, Kindrick testifi ed. When she returned, she left in her car.
Sgt. Joel Franklin, formerly with the Parsons Police Department and now with the Chanute Police Department, testified that he was one of the first officers to respond and conducted a safety sweep of the apartment. The apartment door appeared to be closed when he arrived. He knocked, and the force of the knock opened the door. Campbell’s body prevented the door from opening fully so Franklin testifi ed he had to push the door to move Campbell away and gain entry. He saw the gun next to Campbell’s feet. He testified that Campbell wasn’t breathing or moving. Franklin testified he saw shell casings in the bedroom of the apartment.
A KBI agent noted damage to the sheetrock in the bedroom, collected .40-caliber shell casings and suspected blood evidence from a towel in the bedroom and from the backseat of the Chevy Tahoe in which Rigazio allegedly escaped after the shooting. Investigators also recovered a bullet from a wall.
A former inmate of the county jail testified at a preliminary hearing about what Rigazio told him in jail. Rigazio told the man that the shooting was a drug deal that went bad. Rigazio said he was struck in the head with an object and shot Campbell as they ran through the kitchen toward the door.
Steve Rosebrough, a retired KBI agent, testified that the autopsy showed that Campbell was shot twice, once in the spine and once in the buttocks.
He also testified about security footage at Mendota Creek that showed the comings and goings at 2612 Kimball that day. Campbell and two others arrived together. The footage shows Rigazio and others coming out and Rosebrough testified that Rigazio’s body language showed that he was angry. The group returned to the apartment.
At 5:27 p.m. June 20, 2018, the two men ran off followed by Rigazio, who ran through the front door of the apartment as Kindrick was opening it.
A sentencing date is not known. Rigazio remains jailed.
