The man arrested in connection with Sunday’s double homicide in Topeka committed a gunshot murder here in 1981.

Maximo Campillo-Echevarria, 62, was being held Monday afternoon in the Shawnee County Jail in connection with Sunday’s slayings of two people at Capitol Corner Apartments, 800 S.W. Polk — three blocks west of the Statehouse.

The Topeka Police Department wasn’t releasing the names, ages or causes of death for the victims. One victim was a man, but no details were available about the second victim.

Topeka Capital-Journal archives show Campillo-Echevarria was 24 when he became among about 125,000 Cubans who fled their country for the United States in the 1980 Mariel boatlift.

Campillo-Echevarria killed Pedro Machado, 34, who had also left Cuba in the boatlift, in April 1981 in Topeka. Police said a long-standing feud between the two ended when he shot Machado twice with a pistol in the 1500 block of S. Kansas Avenue.

Campillo-Echevarria was sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree murder, and remained in prison until he was paroled in 2000.

He was returned to prison for a parole violation and additional criminal convictions — including two counts of aggravated assault — after a 2004 incident in which he drove his vehicle into a southeast Topeka apartment while attempting to hide from police.

Campillo-Echevarria was then paroled on Dec. 24, 2014, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

Sunday evening’s slayings left Topeka inching closer to its record for the number of homicides in a single year.

The deaths brought the city’s 2017 homicide count to 21, with more than three months remaining in the year.

The city’s all-time record of 28 homicides was set in 1994 and tied last year.

Personnel from the Topeka police and fire departments, along with the Kansas Highway Patrol, responded about 6:15 p.m. Sunday to the Capitol Corner Apartments building after receiving a report of a stabbing and fire.

One person was pronounced dead at the scene. A male victim died a short time later after being taken by American Medical Response ambulance to a Topeka hospital.

Campillo-Echevarria, whose address was listed by jail officials as being at the same apartment complex where the incident occurred, was located on foot in the area and was transported to the Law Enforcement Center, where he was questioned. He was then booked into jail.

The double-homicide marks at least the third time in 2017 that Topeka has seen multiple slayings in the same incident. In two other cases, three people were killed in incidents in north Topeka and in southwest Topeka.

Check cjonline.com later for more details as they become available.

Homicide database for Topeka, Shawnee County



