Wichita convicted of using obituaries to plan burglaries

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A Wichita man has been sentenced to prison for using online obituary posts to plan burglaries.

Gary Garrett was sentenced to 120 months in prison and 78 months in the Sedgwick County Jail after being found guilty in August of three separate cases totaling 27 counts. The counts included three home burglaries, one business burglary and multiple counts of theft, forgery and identity theft.

Garrett, 50, was convicted of 25 counts — the judge dismissed two counts of theft because they were double counts. His sentences total 16 and a half years.

Victims told police they lost financial documents, guns and electronics in the home burglaries, some of which happened while families were at funeral services for family members.

When Garrett was arrested last November in a Walmart parking lot, he had the driver’s license of someone whose obituary he probably found online. A Wichita police burglary detective testified that a download of Garrett’s phone showed online obituary searches that matched burglary locations in the city from July to November 2023.

Garrett was also convicted of using false identification to lease and purchase multiple vehicles in the same time frame. One of Garrett’s rental vehicles had a GPS tracking device that placed the vehicle at the scene of several burglaries, according to trial testimony.