A 21-year-old Hutchinson man who was granted 18-months community corrections on an 18-month sentence involving the sale of marijuana and another 12-months community corrections on a 12-month underlying sentence for criminal threat could now face new charges.
Reno County District Judge Tim Chambers had ordered Jordon Thomas to Larned State Hospital for a mental evaluation during a hearing for a community corrections violation Friday.
Judge Chambers 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. However, law enforcement was alerted and he was taken into custody near a Dollar General Store. Thomas could now face an additional charge of attempted aggravated escape from custody.
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.
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.
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 and part of his face after the shotgun blast as you can see in the photo above.
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.
Thomas will now be taken to Larned for the evaluation, but could still be sent to prison for the corrections violations, as well as the possible escape charge.