The Kansas Court of Appeals gave a mixed ruling for a 23-year-old Hutchinson man convicted of attempted manufacture of methamphetamine and attempted 2nd degree murder.
Paul Stotts is serving 304-months after being convicted of those two felonies, felony flee/elude and several other felony and misdemeanor charges.
He appealed the conviction on a number of issues. Stotts complained that the prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Tom Stanton unfairly commented on his post-arrest silence, a protected right. Stanton apparently mentioned in his closing argument that Stotts had never explained to police why he fled from officers until the trial, but the appeals court ruled that it did not rise to the level of prosecutorial misconduct.
He also complained that now retired Judge Richard Rome violated his right to be present during all proceedings when the judge, essentially in response to the defense lawyers suggestions, spoke to jurors privately to be sure that a non-testimonal incident they observed in the courtroom wasn’t going to impede their ability to render a fair verdict. The appeals court called it a harmless error.
Stotts also raised issues about jury instructions and the sentences he received. The court ruled against him over jury instructions, and essentially stated they couldn’t rule on the sentences handed down because Judge Rome awarded sentencing based on state sentencing guidelines and thereby stated they have no jursidiction to over-rule Judge Rome.
Stanton at that time argued that two charges, possession of lithium and possession of ephedrine are considered the same under state law because of ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court in another case, so they actually lowered his sentence to 304-months instead of 312. But, his attorney at the time, David Holmes wanted the sentence dropped 51-months which was the sentence on each count. Stotts was sentenced to 355-months, but under the double rule, the most he could actually recieve is 322. However, if you take away 51-months from 355, the sentence would be 304 months.
Stotts was found guilty of attempted 2nd degree murder for intentionally crashing his vehicle into another, badly injuring the other driver. He was also found guilty of having items consistent with a meth lab inside his vehicle, two counts of aggravated battery, and several counts of flee and elude.
The case has to do with the 24-minute high speed chase through both South Hutchinson and Hutchinson which ultimately ended with the crash on K-61 back on March 26th of 2007.