Topeka man who escaped from local prison sentenced to another 10-years
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The 45-year-old Topeka man who entered a plea in the case where he escaped from the Hutchinson Correctional Facility was denied a departure and sentenced to 122-months in prison, roughly 10-years.
Mark Lucas has been serving time for multiple burglaries and thefts out of Shawnee County and entered the plea to “aggravated escape from custody” for walking away from Hutchinson Correctional Facility back on Aug. 3, 2013. He was captured a few days later in Topeka.
Defense attorney Kelly Driscoll asked for the departure claiming it would be “manifest injustice” to sentence him to another 10-years added to the eight he still has for the Shawnee County convictions. But the state argued that in order to find that, the judge would have to rule that the sentence is “obviously unfair.” Senior Assistant District Attorney Steve Maxwell says that he committed the crime when he left the prison, knowing that it’s illegal for him to do so.
Both sides called witnesses with the defense calling Dr. Jarrod Steffan who works with mental health issues with the prison system as well as having a private practice. He testified that Lucas was upset when he received a letter from his daughter which indicated that she was considering suicide. He says that Lucas became more upset when he couldn’t reach any family members by phone from the prison. He says the emotional stress effected his judgment.
The state called Troy Robinson, an investigator for the prison who told of all the work and man hours which occurred as a result of Lucas escaping. As many as 76 officers were activated across the state to investigate and learn where Lucas might be. He says in overtime alone, the cost was over $4,000. That didn’t include gas and other items needed during the search.
In the end, Judge Trish Rose denied the defense request saying she sees this sentence as a deterrent. Although understanding his concern for his daughter, she couldn’t find “manifest injustice.”
Lucas was found missing during an informal count that was being conducted at the south unit of Hutchinson Correctional Facility which houses minimum custody inmates. Lucas claimed at his preliminary hearing that he walked away because his daughter was suicidal and he was trying to help her. Evidence to that effect was given in court.
Woman convicted in South Hutch standoff case granted community corrections
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The woman arrested back on July 23, 2013 in South Hutchinson in an apparent attempted armed robbery situation was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison, but then granted three years probation.
Tina Brown had earlier entered “guilty” pleas to attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, criminal threat, auto burglary and interference with a law enforcement officer.
The case started just after 1 a.m. that morning with the defendant getting into a vehicle that didn’t belong to her at a residence on Detroit Street in South Hutch. She then went to the door of the residence and started beating on the door with a stick. Eventually, the victim came to the door and Brown demanded his keys claiming she wanted to steal his vehicle, but he refused. She threatened him saying she had a 9 mm handgun. The victim and the defendant apparently scuffled and eventually police were called. Brown ended up in a shed behind the residence where she held police at bay for nearly four hours. She finally gave up and was taken into custody.
Although she claimed to have a gun, officials never found one.
Hutch man granted corrections in five cases
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A 28-year-old Hutchinson man entered pleas to numerous charges in five cases in a deal the defense presented to the state and they accepted was granted three years of community corrections with an underlying sentence of roughly nine and a half years. .
Matthew Gulick entered pleas to the sale of methamphetamine, using a communication’s device to sell the drugs, possession of stolen property, five counts of burglary, eight counts of felony theft, three counts of making false writing, aggravated intimidation of a witness or victim and criminal threat. The state dropped some of the charges against Gulick, including a racketeering charge.
As part of that agreement, if Gulick violates his corrections, he cannot ask for a reduction of the sentence.
Gulick is now convicted of selling less than a half gram for one incident and just over two grams of meth in the second. The making false writing convictions involve three pawn tickets and the possession of stolen property crimes occurred in October and November of last year.
He was expected to be released from jail Friday afternoon to begin his three years corrections term.