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Inset left: Edward A. Millan-Volcan (Sedgwick County). Inset right: Sinay Leon-Montoya (Obituary). Background: The apartment complex where Millan-Volcan killed Leon-Montoya in Wichita, Kan. (Google Maps).
A Kansas man has been sentenced to several decades in prison for the brutal murder of a woman in front of their two children last summer.
Edward A. Millan-Volcan, 26, admitted guilt last week to one count of first-degree felony murder for the fatal stabbing of 27-year-old Sinay Leon-Montoya on July 17, 2025. The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office shared this development in a press release.
Millan-Volcan also entered a guilty plea for one count of attempted murder related to an assault on Germany Torres Figueroa, 26, that took place on the same day.
The tragic incident partly stemmed from a breakdown in communication. Leon-Montoya had dialed 911 just minutes before her murder, but unfortunately, that call did not prevent the tragedy, according to police.
At 2:17 p.m. on the day of the incident, Leon-Montoya contacted emergency services from the 6300 block of West Kellogg Drive in Wichita to report a domestic disturbance, as noted by the police department at the time.
“A language barrier made communication with dispatchers difficult,” a press release from last year reads. “She then left that location and returned to the apartment, where the fatal stabbing occurred.”
By 2:34 p.m., police would be called again. By then it was too late.
In those intermediate 17 minutes, Leon-Montoya traveled roughly 3 miles north to an apartment on the 6800 block of West Par Lane.
Police arrived to find two victims.
“They found a woman outside with injuries consistent with a stab or cut wound,” the original press release goes on. “She was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.”
Inside, Leon-Montoya was suffering from multiple stab wounds. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.
The defendant was also found inside and arrested without incident.
Millan-Volcan had stabbed the victim more than 60 times in the apartment they shared. But the violence began earlier that day.
In the earlier 911 call, the woman said Millan-Volcan had been hitting and choking her, as well as threatening to kill her and her children, according to an affidavit obtained by The Wichita Eagle.
Before police could respond to that location, however, she told the dispatcher she had to go back to the apartment “due to something happening to one of her children,” the charging document says.
Some press accounts have referred to Millan-Volcan as the victim’s estranged husband. The woman, for her part, was in the process of trying to end the relationship when she died, police said.
Upon her return to the apartment, Millan-Volcan forced Leon-Montoya, her children and Figueroa into a bedroom where he stabbed both women. Investigators found the slain woman on the bedroom floor, lying next to a three-inch long scratch awl.
“Investigators learned Montoya and the suspect have young children who were present during the incident,” police said at the time.
The medical examiner found more than 60 puncture wounds to the victim’s chest, neck, arms, back and head — including 21 wounds that penetrated her heart and lungs, authorities said.
Figueroa, a friend of Leon-Montoya’s, attempted to stop the murder but was injured herself — to a lesser degree — when she intervened.
Millan-Volcan was initially charged with two counts each of kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment. Those charges were dismissed under his plea deal.
The defendant is slated to be sentenced on July 16. He faces a minimum sentence of 38 3/4 years in prison, prosecutors said.