Daily Archives: July 17, 2008

Defendant who spit in deputies eye launches tirade at sentencing

July 17, 20085:05 p.m.

Note to defendants: If you want a judge to give you less than the maximum prison time, don’t call her a b****.

Michael Gaines, 50, didn’t heed that advice while facing Judge Rebecca Pilshaw today. Gaines, who is HIV-positive, was convicted last month by a jury of spitting in a deputy’s eye while in the county jail.

Prosecutor Kevin O’Connor had recommended 10 years, a hefty sentence, but not the max. Gaines lost his temper and swore at the judge, prompting Sedgwick County Sheriff’s deputies to remove him from the courtroom. Gaines continued to yell at O’Connor, calling him “a maggot who was stillborn at birth.”

Pilshaw borrowed Judge Eric Yost’s courtroom, where he does first appearances from the jail via closed-circuit television. Pilshaw concluded the sentencing via video, giving Gaines the maximum of 164 months (more than 13 years).

O’Connor’s argument had been that Gaines couldn’t control his temper.

Updates: Video[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/5v9Jxz-9vU8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Also, Judge Pilshaw blogged about her account of the sentencing.

By Ron Sylvester | Tagged as , , \n | Comments (4) | Share this post

Judge: Number of jail beds don’t impact court decisions

July 17, 20084:10 p.m.

Whether or not the county builds new jail space into its budget, business in the criminal courts division will go on as usual.

Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Yost, chief of the criminal courts division, said jail space doesn’t figure into decisions on sentencing or bail. We asked Yost if County Manager Bill Buchanan’s recommendation to not put a $54 million jail expansion into next year’s budget would affect the courts.

“We are all well aware of the problem, of course,” Yost said, “but we need to do what we think is appropriate with each case, and hope there is a place to house those who get incarcerated.”

Bond is set by the severity of the crimes and the risk that a defendant will flee.

“Thus, most low-level felony cases and misdemeanors will be able to bond out easily anyway,” Yost said. “Defendants in the more serious cases probably won’t.”

By Ron Sylvester | Tagged as , , , \n | Comments (1) | Share this post

Secretary for fake Indian tribe in Wichita pleads guilty

July 17, 200812:39 p.m.

Eduviges del Carmen Zamora was in this country as a legal resident when she went to work selling memberships in a fake Indian tribe to illegal aliens in Wichita.

Zamora pleaded guilty this morning to having knowledge of a felony that she didn’t report to authorities. The felony in this case is mail fraud.

She worked as a secretary in the Wichita home office of the unrecognized Kaweah Indian tribe, one of the most fascinating cases to be going through the justice system here.

Prosecutors say illegal immigrants in nearly a dozen states spent some $200 each for memberships in the fake Kaweah Indian tribe with the hopes that it would give them the proper papers to stay in the country. Malcom Webber is charged as the leader under the alias of “Grand Chief Thunderbird the IV.” Trial is set for Webber, who was 69 when he was charged last September, and the other defendants later this year.

By Ron Sylvester | Tagged as , \n | Comments Off | Share this post