Man found with wife’s dismembered body in Lenexa convicted of child endangerment
Justin Rey, the man who was found at a Lenexa storage facility in 2017 with his children and his wife’s dismembered body, was found guilty early Thursday of child endangerment, contributing to a child’s misconduct and sexual exploitation of a child.
A Johnson County District Court jury deliberated for about eight hours before reaching its verdicts about 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
Rey, 36, was arrested in October 2017 after someone called Lenexa police to report that a man was staying at a storage unit with two small children.
When police talked to Rey, he had his 2-year-old and newborn daughters with him.
At the storage unit, police found human body parts inside several storage containers.
Rey told police that his wife had died a few days earlier after giving birth in a Kansas City hotel room. He said that he dismembered the body so he could take her back to Arizona for burial.
Rey has denied that he and the children were sleeping in the storage unit. He said they were there to pack for the trip to Arizona.
The child exploitation charges involved child pornography found on Rey’s phone after he was arrested.
Aside from the charges filed in Johnson County, Rey is also charged in Jackson County with abandonment of a corpse.
Rey testified at trial, but defense attorney Scott Toth only asked questions about the child pornography, which prevented Assistant District Attorney Sarah Hill from questioning him about the children and what happened to his wife.
Rey was initially charged with felony counts of aggravated child endangerment, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser misdemeanors of child endangerment.
The misconduct charges are also misdemeanors, while the exploitation counts are felonies.
Rey has been in custody since his 2017 arrest and his sentencing is scheduled for March 27.
This story was originally published January 31, 2019 at 9:18 AM.
