Life sentence issued in Topeka murder

? A 23-year-old Kansas City, Kan., man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a 37-year-old Topeka man.

Jose Arevalo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 20 years in the death of Land S. Grant. Wyandotte County Dist. Judge Robert Serra also sentenced Arevalo to eight years for attempted murder and aggravated robbery. That sentence was to run consecutively, the judge said during the Monday sentencing.

Arevalo pleaded guilty in September to first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in connection with Grant’s death and the wounding of a Topeka woman who was with Grant.

Grant was shot to death and the woman was injured in June 2000 while they were parked behind a restaurant in Kansas City, Kan. Prosecutors said the shootings occurred during a drug sale.

Three other people were charged in the case. Jesse Jiminez of Kansas City, Kan., was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and aggravated robbery. A Wyandotte County judge dismissed those charges last year, however, because prosecutors did not bring him to trial within the time provided in state law.

Gerald Zugelder, 27, of Independence, Mo., pleaded guilty in 2001 to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to about 13 years in prison.

Rebecca Beach, 24 of Raytown, Mo., was convicted of murder and attempted murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 20 years.