Kansas prisoner sentenced in 2023 murder of cellmate: Court records

A man incarcerated in the Lansing Correctional Facility in Leavenworth has been sentenced to more than 50 additional years in prison after murdering his cellmate last year.

Al’Ryon Perkins, 31, was convicted Wednesday of second-degree murder after allegedly beating and strangling his cellmate, 29-year-old Darionce Terrell Charles-Lott.

Perkins will serve an additional 653 months in prison. He had previously completed 110 months of a 525-month sentence handed down in June 2015.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation was informed of Charles-Lott’s death at 10:45 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2023. Charles-Lott’s death was ruled a homicide on Dec. 13, and the murder charge against Perkins was filed on March 7, 2024.

Perkins pleaded guilty to murdering Charles-Lott on July 31. According to court records, Perkins told investigators that after strangling Charles-Lott, he tied a sheet around his neck and smothered him with a pillow “to make sure he was ‘gone.’”

Charles-Lott had been serving a 172-month sentence for aggravated battery in Wyandotte County.

“Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victim’s family as they continue healing,” Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson said in a statement Thursday.

Perkins was originally incarcerated in 2011 after he was convicted of raping a child under the age of 14, according to court documents. Perkins was also charged with aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated kidnapping, theft and two counts of aggravated burglary.

In September 2014, the criminal sodomy charge was dropped and Perkins pleaded guilty to the rest.

Previous reporting by Katie Moore was used in this article.