The Kansas Court of Appeals in April of last year upheld the conviction of a Hutchinson man found guilty of child abuse. But, at the same time the court remanded the case back to District Court for reconsideration of sentencing. Over a year later, that case will come before Judge Trish Rose for the hearing on Friday.

Aaron Pritchard was sentenced in April of 2008 to just over ten years in prison after being found guilty of 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.

The issue of sentencing comes down to a witness that testified during the penalty phase of the trial, that being Dr. Ellen Losew. But, District Attorney Keith Schroeder says that they still have the fact that Pritchard had a fiduciary relationship with the two kids, and that was part of the reason he sought to upward departure. They’ll re-sentence Pritchard again Friday, but by Judge Trish Rose, now retired Judge Richard Rome who sentenced Pritchard the first time.

At the time of Pritchard’s sentencing, Judge Rome called it one of the most heinous crimes he has ever had to preside upon in all of his years and said there was no way he could grant any request to have Pritchard’s sentenced lowered.

Judge Rome gave Pritchard 55-months for abuse of a child, and 7-months for endangerment of a child. He ran those sentences consecutive to each other, then granted the states upward durational departure motion doubling the sentence for a total of 124 months, or 10-years, 4-months in prison.