A 21-year-old Hutchinson man who was ordered to Larned State Hospital for a mental evaluation and allegedly ran from the courtroom, only to be captured in a shopping area across the street has been formally charged for that escape.
Jordon Thomas was in court on a Community Corrections violation for convictions in two cases. The state was asking that his corrections be revoked when the judge ordered the evaluation and he then took off. That was on September 16. Thomas has been charged with aggravated escape from custody for that incident.
At that hearing, District Judge Tim Chambers had asked Senior Assistant District Attorney Steve Maxwell to go and get a deputy to have Thomas taken into custody. Thomas was trying to get the judge to reconsider which wasn’t working, so he took off running from the courtroom. Maxwell took off after him, chasing him from the third floor to first, and out the front courthouse door and down the steps. Maxwell gave up after Thomas ran across First Street and into a nearby shopping area.
Sheriff Deputy Jacob Gayer says he was notified of the incident from the audible panic alarm ringing in the jail. He was captured by a Hutchinson Police officer who pulled beside him and told him to stop running or he would be tased. Sheriff officials and taken into custody near a Dollar General Store. According to Deputy Gayer, Thomas told him he knew that he had been placed in custody and that he freaked out about being looked up. He apparently fell during his run from the courtroom and injured his left elbow and right hand. He also stated he lost a shoe during the his attempt to escape.
Thomas at one time faced charges of criminal threat, stalking, and harassment by phone, but entered a plea to the felony of making a criminal threat and the state dropped the other charges.
He was accused of harassing a Hutchinson woman on two separate occasions on September 1, and against on November 30, of last year. The criminal threat case was ordered consecutive to the marijuana case for a total of 30-months.
In that case, Thomas admitted he was selling marijuana, as well as got into an altercation with a man at a southside Hutchinson home. He had entered no contest pleas to possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute drugs, no tax stamp, misdemeanor battery, and endangering a child. The state dropped an alternate count of battery.
Thomas along with his girlfriend at the time are alleged to have gotten into a Hutchinson man at a home in the 100 block of East Carpenter back on December 9, 2008. He was then spotted at the Burger King on East 4th, and was stopped by police. Officials allege he had as much as 291-grams of marijuana as well as a black electronic scale in the vehicle.
He had been granted 18-months community corrections on an 18-month underlying sentence involving the sale of marijuana and another 12-months community corrections on a 12-month underlying sentence for criminal threat. He could be sent to prison for the total of 30-months for those two cases.
You may also remember Thomas as the man who nearly lost his life in a shooting incident back on September 15, 2009. He was wounded in the face, when he and another man arrived at an eastside apartment. Thomas was shot in the face with a shotgun, and taken to a Wichita Hospital for treatment. He lost his left eye in that exchange.
21-year-old Leonardo Joseph Velázquez-Vieyra is charged with attempted 2nd degree murder for the shooting of Thomas as was granted 18-months community corrections after he entered a plea to a lesser case of aggravated battery.
With the charge of aggravated escape from custody, the case against Thomas will be scheduled for a waiver-status docket at a future date.