A Leavenworth County man, Waddell Warren who was convicted of introducing a controlled substance into a correctional facility and sentenced to an additional 122-months in prison by Judge Tim Chambers will get a new sentencing in Reno County District Court.
The 49-year-old Warren at the time of sentencing had requested that he be given a departure because of the small amount of marijuana found in his socks while inside the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. Judge Tim Chambers ruled that he couldn’t consider a lesser sentence on that basis. That was in 2010, for the crime which occurred in 2008.
Warren appealed claiming that the district court erred when it concluded it couldn’t consider whether to grant a downward departure sentence based on the small amount of drugs he possessed.
The Kansas Court of Appeals held that Judge Chambers could consider the amount of drugs at sentencing as an issue of law and remanded the case with directions to re-sentence Warren. The state then petitioned for a review by the Kansas Supreme Court challenging only the sentencing issue. The high court concluded that the Court of Appeals was correct in reversing the sentence in the case.
That means that the case will now come back to Judge Chambers for re-sentencing, and that he is free to enter whatever sentence he finds appropriate, however, the original sentence he handed down is not his only option.
Warren is serving time for robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, aiding or abetting robbery and theft for crimes in Leavenworth County. He is currently being housed at the El Dorado Correctional Facility.