Inset, top to bottom: Mickel Cherry (Shawnee County Jail) and Zoey Felix (WIBW). Background: Police at the scene where Cherry killed Zoey (WIBW).
A 26-year-old man in Kansas will spend decades behind bars for sexually assaulting and killing a 5-year-old girl last year in a makeshift homeless encampment while the child’s father was at work across the street. Mickel Cherry appeared in court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder and one count of rape in connection with the slaying of young Zoey Felix, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Cherry was initially charged with capital murder. Prosecutors with the Shawnee County District Attorney’s Office dropped that charge in exchange for his guilty plea.
Under Kansas state law, Cherry will face a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility for parole after 25 years. However, the presiding judge in the case can order Cherry imprisoned for up to 50 years before he would be eligible for parole.
Officers with the Topeka Police Department on Oct. 2, 2023, 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 gas station 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 lifesaving measures on the child before rushing her to a 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, police stated that officers took Cherry into custody and charged him with Zoey’s murder, noting that Cherry and the victim knew each other prior to her death. Sources close to the investigation told Topeka CBS affiliate WIBW that Cherry and the victim were not related but said that Zoey had been living in the same outdoor homeless camp as Cherry at the time of her death.
According to a report from The Associated Press, District Attorney Mike Kagay told the court that after initially making a series of conflicting statements to investigators, Cherry eventually admitted that he sexually assaulted Zoey before suffocating her with a pillow. Cherry was reportedly left alone with Zoey for about five hours while her father worked at a gas station just across the street from where his daughter was killed.
A neighbor reportedly told authorities that the victim was living in the homeless camp because Zoey’s mother had thrown her and her father out of their house two weeks before the girl’s death. The house was reportedly in deplorable shape and had no running lights or water.
Authorities reportedly have not disclosed why Cherry was living with the family in the homeless camp or how long he had known Zoey and her father.
Community members told the Topeka Capital-Journal that Zoey “pretty much took care of herself” and would 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.”
