The majority of people in U.S. prisons suffer from some form of mental disorder. Lennie Coleman was one of them. The 66-year-old had just served nearly three years for threatening his neighbors when he was arrested again for drugs. Even his neighbors said he needed help. The law said Coleman should go to prison on the latest charge. Judge David Kaufman had to decide what was in the best interests of both the defendant and the community.
(Watch video after the jump) Read More
A western Kansas man faces a charge of first-degree murder because prosecutors say he gave drugs to a man who died of an overdose.
The Hays Daily News reports that David Knapp is accused of murder, after 46-year-old Frank A. Brown died at a motel in October 2006 while taking the prescription pain-killer fentanyl.
In Kansas, someone can be convicted of felony murder if they are involved in an “inherently dangerous felony” that results in someone dying. In this case, prosecutors Brown died of the overdose while Knapp was committing the crime of crime of illegal distribution of drugs. Knapp is tentatively scheduled for trial next month.
A faulty tail light led to a Wichita man going to prison for half a lifetime.
When Wichita police pulled over Nicholas Sandefur, 30, back on April 29, 2006, officers saw the butt of a gun tucked in his pants. They also found four bags of methamphetamine in his car.
Because he had a gun and drugs, a federal judge sentenced Sandefur to 15 years in prison this week. Sandefur pleaded guilty in November. There is no parole from federal prison.
The first-appearance docket today gave Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Yost the kind of Valentine he didn’t expect.
One of the defendants on the docket sheet was Valentine Solis, appearing from the closed circuit television from the county jail to hear criminal charges filed against him on Valentine’s Day.
Valentine is charged with carrying the wrong kind of candy — possession of cocaine. That comes from the coca plant, not the cocoa plant, that other South American crop with the bean used to make chocolate. That’s what most people carry this time of year. Yost scheduled a preliminary hearing for two weeks.