LARNED — A Larned State Hospital inmate with a history of escape from custody pleaded guilty Monday morning to walking away from the facility in June 2023.
Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett reported that Gary Leslie Furthmeyer, 73, an inmate of the Sexual Predator Treatment Program on the LSH campus, appeared in custody that morning in Pawnee County District Court for a change of plea hearing. A two-day jury trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday on a two-count felony complaint consisting of violation of the Kansas Offender Registration Act and aggravated escape from custody.
McNett noted that the charges stem from Furthmeyer’s walking away from the SPTP the night of June 23, 2023. At the time of the escape, Furthmeyer was enrolled in the transition phase of the SPTP program, which allows enrolled residents additional privileges, such as the requirement to maintain employment and carry a cellphone for location check purposes. Upon returning from a supervised trip to the Dodge City casino, Furthmeyer tossed his cellphone into the trash and walked away as the group unloaded in the facility parking lot.
Approximately 2-1/2 hours later, however, Furthmeyer was located by Kansas Highway Patrol officers as he was hiding in a grove of trees northwest of the LSH campus. The KHP was assisted by the Pawnee and Edwards County sheriff’s offices and multiple K-9 units from surrounding jurisdictions.
The original charges stemmed from Furthmeyer’s failure to register his cellphone with the PCSO and the planned walkaway. On Monday, the prosecution agreed to drop the offender registration charge in exchange for a guilty plea to the escape charge, McNett said. As part of the plea agreement, Furthmeyer has the right to request a departure sentence, with the understanding that prosecution would oppose any such request.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16. Under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines, Furthmeyer faces a presumptive prison sentence between seven and 23 months in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections, depending upon his criminal history.
Criminal history
According to Lansing prison records, Furthmeyer disappeared from prison in 1988 after being sentenced to 6-25 years for a 1985 conviction of indecent liberties with a child and failure to appear in Sedgwick County, Kansas. He spent five years on the run before being apprehended in Texas.
Upon his capture, he was transported to Lansing Correctional Facility where he was placed under minimum security upon a review by the prison board. Furthmeyer, who was scheduled to be released in 2014, then escaped from his minimum custody job assignment at the facility steam plant in the early morning of April 18, 2012, and was recaptured in Kansas City three weeks later.
