A Cowley County man has been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for the murder of a woman in Great Bend in 1980.
A guilty plea was entered in August by 70-year-old Steven Hanks of Burden. He was arrested after Barton County officials reopened an investigation in 2022 into the murder of 23-year-old Mary Robin Walter.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office said Walter was killed in her home in Great Bend, but no arrests were made. Investigators conducted a new interview with Hanks, who was a neighbor of Walter and was a suspect in the murder at the time. The Attorney General’s Office said Hanks admitted to the murder during the new interview. New technology and new techniques were used when the case was reopened and Hanks was arrested and charged in December, 2022.
Barton County District Court Judge Steven Johnson sentenced Hanks to serve a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 25 years in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections.
