Topeka man admitted to raping and murdering 5-year-old girl, sentenced to life
A Shawnee County judge sentenced a Topeka man this week to life in prison for 50 years without parole in the rape and murder of a preschool-aged girl.
The judge sentenced Mickel Wayne Cherry, 27, to serve consecutive life sentences for rape and murder charges. Cherry admitted to smothering 5-year-old Zoey Felix in 2023. His incarceration will last at least 50 years before before he can be evaluated for parole, according to court records.
Cherry pleaded guilty to his charges last year in exchange for prosecutors not pursuing the death penalty. He was sentenced in Shawnee County District Court Tuesday.
The 5-year-old girl was found in a field near a Topeka gas station Oct. 2, 2023 after police and firefighters responded to an emergency medical call. She was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Neighbors said they repeatedly called police and social services at the southeast Topeka home where Zoey had lived, concerned about neglect.
According to court documents, Felix’s welfare was investigated by the state at least seven times in the year before her death. After her death, authorities discovered Zoey had been living in a tent with her father, her sister and Cherry.
Concerns mounted among outraged community members who called for accountability and said the Kansas Department of Children and Families had failed Zoey.
According to The Associated Press, court records showed Felix had an increasingly unstable life. Numerous police reports were made at her mother’s home.
The AP reported in 2023 that over that summer, Felix, her father and Cherry, a family acquaintance later charged with Felix’s murder, moved back into the home. The AP reported the home was briefly condemned after police were told Felix was left home alone with “a strange man” and no water or electricity.
Zoey’s case prompted Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to push for legislation that would allow the state’s child welfare agency to share information in a more timely manner.
Kansas legislators created a child advocate’s office last year, which allows for a public summary of what happened after a child dies in state custody, or after a child has contact with the Department of Children and Families.
Prosecution of the rape and murder charges against Cherry was met with thousands of pages of records from the defense documenting “mitigating events” in Cherry’s life. Mitigating events are facts that could lessen a defendant’s conviction.
The case saw several continuances as the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit requested more time to prepare, and show that Cherry had suffered severe abuse as a child.
The day of Zoey’s death, Cherry allegedly confessed to her killing, according to court records. He had been in custody in the Shawnee County Jail since admitting to the crimes.
After his sentencing Tuesday, Cherry was taken into custody in the Shawnee County Department of Corrections.
Previous reporting by The Star’s Laura Bauer contributed.
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 10:45 AM.
