A 33-year-old Hutchinson man has now been sentenced multiple times and was again Friday afternoon because of a technicality. The sentence stayed the same for Aron Pritchard in a child abuse case from 2006, where he place two kids in a clothes dryer.
District Judge Trish Rose back in November had sentenced Pritchard to 110-months, down from the 124-months which was the original sentence handed down by now retired Judge Richard Rome, and a sentence Judge Rose upheld previously.
The Kansas Court of Appeals had remanded the case for re-sentencing based on the double rule in criminal cases which indicated that he should only be sentenced using the base sentence which was 55-months for abuse of a child, which would make any double sentence 110-months.
When Judge Rose sentenced Pritchard back in November, there was a petition for review in the case pending before the Kansas Supreme Court meaning she didn’t have any mandate or jurisdiction to re-sentence him at the point. Eventually, the petition for review was denied and the mandate for re-sentencing arrived at the district court. So, they did the re-sentencing again Friday afternoon.
Pritchards attorney, Public Defender Sarah McKinnon argued for a total of 62-months, but a jury had agreed that he has fiduciary relationship with the kids and that the sentence should be doubled and Judge Trish Rose again gave him the double sentence on the first count.
Pritchard was convicted by a Reno County jury of “abuse of a child” for placing two children in a clothes dryer, a three-year-old boy, and a two-year-old girl. The boy sustained 2nd degree burns on his back, arms and buttocks. The crimes occurring back on November 28, 2006.