7 March 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Sentencing for a Butler County man convicted of murdering his infant son was delayed for seven more weeks.
Kaleb Hogan was convicted in January of first-degree murder and child abuse in the death of 3-year-old Malykai Hogan.
Malykai’s mother, Savannah Arnett, has been waiting for justice for two years. She says it is a devastating blow at a time she finally felt like she was getting her life back.
“And I was getting back to living normal after two years, like I just wasn’t just standing in one spot, like, in the movies where one person stands in one spot, and it just feels like people go by them, like it actually felt like I was walking with people again.”
Arnett says she first learned her ex-husband Kaleb’s sentencing could be delayed during a conversation with Butler County’s assistant county attorney on Monday.
“I say, will I see him get handcuffed, and she’s like, ‘if that, if he gets sentenced,’ so it kind of threw me off, and we’re like, maybe it’s just saying, like, you always have to have that little bit of doubt as lawyers, so we didn’t think anything of it.”
That seed of doubt quickly turned into fear, with Hogan’s hearing held back until April 24.
“I was surprised, like none of, no one expected that at all like we learned about it the day of.”
Arnett says with this delay, she fears a retrial is now more of a possibility, afraid she’ll have to take the stand a second time.
“It’s just like getting hit in the stomach over and over again…just pray and pray and pray that there’s some God out there telling me that you don’t have to fight no more.”
Hogan faces 25 years to life in prison