He had sex with her on Mother’s Day and after her best friend’s birthday. She was 14 years old. He was her father. Did he deserve a harsher sentence because of that relationship? No judge can decide that. Only a jury can. Prosecutor Marc Bennett asked a jurors to do that because a father had betrayed his child’s trust.
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People often look at plea bargains as a deal given to the defendant. But it also helps those harmed by crimes. Prosecutor Marc Bennett said that’s an ultimate goal in cases such as the sex abuse and attempted murder plea of Chris Newberry.
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In 2006, Kansas legislators passed Jessica’s Law to give harsher penalties for people convicted of sexually molesting children. Public defender Lacy Gilmour argued that, with people now facing 25 years to life in prison, the courts should more closely examine the mental state of the accusers.
The law is so new, however, there are no appellate cases to help guide judges in such requests. Prosecutor Justin Edwards said he’s only seen such motions granted twice in his nine years on the job.
Marlin Williams is off to prison for the next two decades, because he took a 15-year-old girl from Wichita to work the streets of Dallas as a prostitute.
Williams, 38, was sentenced to 246 months in prison last week, and courthouse sources say he continued to blame the teenage girl for his predicament.
Actually, it was state lawmakers, who passed a law against aggravated human trafficking, that gave prosecutors the power to charge adults who recruit or transport girls for illegal sexual activities. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett, who directs the sex crimes trial unit, said before the law went into effect in 2007, there wasn’t a charge that would bring substantial prison time.
Williams was the first person in Sedgwick County charged under the 2007 law. A jury convicted him in September.
Judge Clark Owens based Williams’ hefty sentence last week on a criminal history that dated to the 1980s.
The girl testified that she was a runaway who ended up being taken in by a women whose name she didn’t know. There, the girl said she made $6,000 in about two weeks of performing sexual favors for customers along a stretch of Northwest Highway near I-35 in Dallas. She said she gave the money to Williams.
Williams remains in the Sedgwick County Jail, awaiting prison placement by the Kansas Department of Corrections.
A 48-year-old Wichita woman is accused of prostituting her 5-year-old daughter, but prosecutors say it wasn’t the first time.
Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston is seeking a judge’s permission to introduce testimony from two of the woman’s grown daughters, who said she sold them for sex when they were between the ages of 8 and 14.
Judge Greg Waller will hear evidence this afternoon, under a law that allows information about prior bad acts if it serves to show a pattern of behavior relevant to the crime charged.
The woman is charged along with the man who prosecutors say paid for sex with the 5-year-old on several occasions . After the case of the girl came to light with state social services and police, the older daughters came forward and told what happened to them. According to court records, they’ve said their mother began selling them for sex “to put food on the table” while she worked as an exotic dancer in the early 1990s.
This morning, Waller denied a request by the couple’s defense to exclude news reporters from the trial, which is set for March.
A 73-year-old Wichita school bus driver has been charged with fondling a 6-year-old girl.
Billy J. Reynolds made his first appearance Tuesday morning to hear charges against him on four counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Prosecutors say he engaged in lewd touching of the girl from October until his arrest Jan. 6.
Susan Arensman, spokeswoman for Wichita Public Schools, said the girl’s parent reported the acts to the principal at Emerson Open Magnet Elementary, who called the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit. Arensman said Reynolds, employed privately by Durham School Services, was fired the day after the district received the complaint. He had driven a bus for 16 years.
Reynolds’ preliminary hearing is tentatively set for Feb. 3.
Wichita tennis coach Barry Fields will face trial this spring, accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl who attended his family’s academy.
Fields, 44, helps run BK Tennis Academy, which opened in 1992 and serves about 200 young tennis players each month. Today he pleaded not guilty to having sexual intercourse with one of the girls from the academy three times between May and July last year.
After Fields waived his preliminary hearing, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess ordered the case to proceed to trial, tentatively set for April 13. Fields is charged with three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, because the girl was older than 14 but younger than 16, which is the age of consent in Kansas.
Warning: Contains graphic content.
A 36-year-old Wichita man is scheduled to go to trial later this month charged with repeated sex acts against a young relative over four years.
Robin Adams is charged with raping, fondling and abusing the girl from the time she was 7 until she was 11. The girl has told authorities that Adams held a gun to the girl’s head, a knife to her neck, burned her with cigarettes and threatened to drown her in the bathtub to keep her from telling.
The girls’ mother has been convicted of aggravated child endangerment for knowing about the abuse but not reporting it to authorities. She is currently on probation.
Details of the case were revealed in a motion filed last week by prosecutor Christine Ladner, asking a judge to consolidate three cases against Adams for a trial set to begin Jan. 26. The motion is set to be heard on Friday. Although Ladner left the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office at the beginning of the year to take a similar job in Shawnee County, she has received special permission to return to Wichita and prosecute Adams.
Adams has said through his lawyer, Alice Osburn, that the girl is mentally ill and fabricating the case. Ladner said the girl suffers serious anxiety, depression and other serious psychological problems as a result of the abuse.
On one occasion, the girl said, Adams put a gun to her head and told her “say bye to your mommy.” The girl also said he locked her in the dark bathroom for hours after she tried to call for help and made her drink urine.
Last year, Ladner made a rare request for the child to be allowed to testify via closed circuit TV. While allowed by law, it’s only been granted once in Sedgwick County during the past 10 years. But the law allows such testimony only in instances where the witness is under age 13. The case was originally charged in April 2007, but by the time it comes to trial in two weeks, she will have turned 13, forcing Ladner to withdraw her motion.
Adams is HIV-positive, according to court records, and had tested positive in the time period the girl claims he was having sex with her.
I did a double take when I saw Andrea Brooks in the courtroom of a trial that didn’t involve her murdered sister, Chelsea.
Now Andrea, 20, is volunteering with Wichita’s chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. Andrea and her family said Parents of Murdered Children helped them through their difficulty navigating the court system as they waited more than two years and watched three defendants in the case of Chelsea’s killing at age 14. It ended just two weeks ago with the sentencing of Elgin Robinson.
This week, Andrea was in court with another family enduring a tragic loss: that of Kailee Hundley, the 13-month-old girl who died accidentally at day care. Jessica Cummings, the day care provider, was convicted Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter, as Andrea helped console Kailee’s family.
“I decided I wanted to give something back,” Andrea said. “Because Corinne helped me so much.”
There’s rarely a murder trial in Wichita where you won’t see Corinne Radke, who founded the local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. She has been a steady shoulder for the tears of those who have lost loved ones, as she lost her son, to violence. I’ve even seen Corinne in trials where we were the only ones in the gallery: no family for either the victim or defendant.
If you want to volunteer for, or need help from, Parents of Murdered Children, call the local office at 316-265-1600.
Update: Angel was found not guilty.
A local man prosecutors call a Nazi is set to stand trial next week, accused of taking in a runaway girl and having sex with her.
Harold Angel has pleaded not guilty to aggravated indecent liberties with a child and will take his case to a jury next week before Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller. Marc Bennett is prosecuting the case and Jama Mitchell is Angel’s public defender.
The trial begins with jury selection Monday.