The house where Zoey Felix, 5, reportedly often lacked utilities, and she often stayed alone (YouTube screengrab/WIBW). Inset left: Michel Wayne Cherry (via Shawnee County (Kans.) Jail). Inset right: Zoey Felix (YouTube screengrab/WIBW).
A 25-year-old man in Kansas is facing the steepest possible legal penalties for allegedly sexually assaulting and killing a 5-year-old girl. Mickel Wayne Cherry was taken into custody on Tuesday and charged with one count of first-degree murder in the commission of a felony and one count of raping a victim under the age of 14 in the horrific slaying of Zoey Felix, jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Officers with the Topeka Police Department on Monday at about 6 p.m. responded to a call about a young girl — later identified as Zoey — suffering from life-threatening injuries at a Dillons located in the 2000 block of S.E. 29th Street in Topeka, according to court documents obtained by Topeka NBC affiliate KSNT. Upon arriving at the location, emergency medical personnel with the Topeka Fire Department were already on the scene performing life-saving measures on the child before rushing her to a local hospital for treatment.
Unfortunately, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead a short time after arriving at the facility.
Zoey’s death was determined to be suspicious and authorities immediately began treating the investigation as a homicide.
In a press release identifying the victim as Zoey, TPD stated that officers took Cherry into custody and charged him with with Zoey’s murder. While authorities have been tight-lipped about the circumstances of Zoey’s death, police noted that Cherry and the victim knew each other prior to her death.
Cherry was booked into the Shawnee County Jail at about 4:15 a.m., records show. He remained in detention as of Wednesday morning on bond of $4 million — $2 million on each of the aforementioned crimes. He is scheduled to make his next appearance in court on Dec. 21.
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Sources close to the investigation reportedly told Topeka CBS affiliate WIBW that Cherry and the victim were not related, but said that Zoey had recently been living in the same outdoor homeless camp as Cherry.
Neighbors told The Topeka Capital-Journal that Zoey had lived in a decrepit house that often had no lights or running water with her mother, a teenage sister, and an adult male who was allegedly a convicted child molester. It is not clear whether the alleged child molester previously living with Zoey and her family was Cherry or another man.
Several community members reiterated to the newspaper that Zoey “pretty much took care of herself” and and could often be seen running around the neighborhood unsupervised.
“Everybody on the block took care of Zoey,” Sheryl Tyree, a woman who does not live in the neighborhood but spends a great deal of time there, told the Capital-Journal. “Everybody loved Zoey, except her parents.”
More than one of Zoey’s neighbors told the Capital-Journal that they had contacted the Kansas Department for Children and Families to report that Zoey was a victim of neglect.
DCF did not immediately respond to a message from Law&Crime inquiring as to whether the department had received such complaints and if so, how they responsed.
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