A Wichita man who admitted to killing his doctor will spend at least a quarter-century in prison.
Before District Judge Tyler Roush handed down the sentence for Umar Dutt, he gave both Dutt and the widow of Dr. Achutha Reddy a chance to speak.
Dr. Reddy was a psychiatric specialist in E. Wichita at Holistic Psychiatric Services, 625 N. Carriage Parkway. In September of 2017, police say Dutt, one of Reddy’s patients, stabbed him approximately 165 times and ran over him before fleeing. Dutt was found later in a parking lot at Wichita Country Club.
Two months ago, as part of a plea agreement, Dutt pleaded guilty to felony first-degree murder.
At the sentencing hearing Tuesday morning, the judge offered him a chance to speak.
“No, I have no statement to make,” Dutt said.
Then Reddy’s widow spoke. Dr. Beena Reddy said that Dutt sentenced her to a life sentence of grief, fear and misery when he murdered her husband.
She described her husband as kind, gentle, compassionate, and the loving father of three children.
“My husband always believed the best of people, including Umar Dutt,” Dr. Beena Reddy said. “In spite of the threats that Umar Dutt made to my husband on several occasions, Achutha thought Umar Dutt could be helped and gave him many second chances to treatment in his clinic. My husband paid the ultimate price for being kind. He paid with his life.”
She said she and her children have all required counseling because of trauma and grief.
“The undeniable brutality of my husband’s last few minutes of life is something that I can never forgive or forget,” Dr. Beena Reddy said. “It affects me daily, and I have no peace.”
She said she has nightmares and anxiety so severe that she was unable to keep her job.
Dr. Beena Reddy acknowledged the plea agreement, which gives Dutt a prison sentence of 25-years-to-life with the possibility of parole after 25 years. But she said he's received credit for the four years he has already served.
“I am terrified that Umar Dutt could be released from prison in 21 years and could be a threat again,” she said. “After all, Umar will only be in his 40s if released in 21 years.”
Dr. Beena Reddy said that Dutt’s mental illness is not an excuse for murder.
“He knew what he was doing,” she said. “He has been coddled all his life and given second chances that he does not deserve. He does not deserve another second chance to murder another innocent victim. I beg you to never allow this monster to be free again.”
She said Dutt was competent as determined by several psychiatric evaluations over the past four years.
“The murder of my husband was premeditated,” Dr. Beena Reddy said. “Umar planned the murder of Achutha Reddy and carried out his plan. He is a brutal, vicious beast, not a human. He does not deserve any compassion.”
She said that Dutt deserves to go to the state penitentiary for the rest of his life.
Also, during the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Kurt Kerns mentioned and submitted documents of his client’s long history of mental illness.
“I will agree that this is a terrible case,” the judge said. “It’s a sad case for the community. It is a sad case for Mr. Dutt.”
But the judge said the requests he received from Dr. Achutha Reddy’s family and Dutt’s family are not within the court’s purview.
“I have one permissible sentence under the law,” Roush said. “That is to sentence the defendant to lifetime in prison with the earliest parole eligibility of 25 years.”
He said any change in sentence length will have to be through the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC).
The prosecution and the defense agreed to request that Dutt serve his sentence at Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility. The judge agreed to recommend that to KDOC.