LARNED — A 33-year-old Larned man was sentenced to life in prison at his felony sentencing in Pawnee County District Court Wednesday.
Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett noted that Speer, formerly of Scott City and Larned, is currently in a Kansas prison serving a sentence for 2015 sex offense convictions in Pawnee County.
Wednesday morning, he was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole by Pawnee County District Judge Bruce Gatterman after being convicted of sexual offenses occurring at a residence in Garfield in May of 2013 involving a child under the age of 14.
Testimony during his July 2024 trial was presented that during a conversation with her mother, the victim disclosed that when she was approximately 8 years old, she had been sexually assaulted at a party that her father had taken her to. She stated the assault occurred when a man asked her to sit on his lap near a bonfire. The girl also told her mother that they ultimately spent the night at the party because her father had been drinking heavily. After she had fallen asleep, the victim remembered being awakened to find the same man’s face between her legs. The victim told her mother that she did not know the man that did it, but she would “definitely remember his face if she saw it again.” After the disclosure, the Pawnee County Sheriff’s Office was then notified about the allegations by the mother and a formal forensic interview of the girl was performed by the Child Advocacy Center in Great Bend.
At the conclusion of a three-day bench trial on July 10, 2024, Speer was found guilty of rape of a child under 14 years of age and aggravated oral sodomy of a child under 14 years of age.
Based on the age of the victim, under Jessica’s Law the presumptive sentence was a life sentence with a mandatory requirement the defendant serve a minimum of 25 years. As part of his opportunity to address the Court at sentencing, Speer denied he had committed the newly convicted offenses and requested the Court consider the efforts he has made in prison to reform himself and sentence him to a reduced sentence such that he could be released in 2027.
A motion for a new trial was denied at a hearing on Aug. 22, 2024.
McNett argued that based on Speer’s other prior sexually-violent crimes, the Court should find that Speer is an Aggravated Habitual Sex Offender and sentence the defendant to life without the possibility of parole. After reviewing the pre-sentence investigation report and hearing the arguments presented, Judge Gatterman agreed that Speer met the statutory criteria of an aggravated habitual sex offender, having been convicted of at least two prior sexually violent crimes. Speer will also be subject to lifetime offender registration as a sex offender, McNett said.
McNett noted that under Kansas sentencing laws, all prior convictions which occur prior to sentencing in the current case are considered in determining criminal history, regardless of whether the offense that led to the prior conviction occurred before or after the current offense or the conviction in the current case. Speer is currently in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections serving a sentence for his 2015 Pawnee County sex offense convictions. Following the sentencing, the defendant was advised of his rights to appeal the convictions and sentence imposed.
