After being convicted by a Barton County jury for a second time on charges that included rape, Steven “Dewey” Jordan, 50, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison – less than half the sentence he received in 2015 for the same crimes.
Jordan, formerly of Great Bend, appeared in custody in the Barton County District Court Wednesday morning for sentencing on convictions of rape, aggravated burglary, and misdemeanor criminal damage to property. The charges stem from his actions on February 6, 2013, when he broke into a neighbor's home in Great Bend and raped her.
Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett was appointed special prosecutor to present the State’s case at a re-trial last year. Jordan was represented by Shannon Crane of Hutchinson.
Jordan was convicted on December 11, 2019, for the second time on the charges following a three-day jury trial.
After being convicted at the end of a five-day jury trial in September of 2015, the defendant appealed his original convictions.
“On review,” McNett explained in a news release issued Wednesday afternoon, “the Kansas Court of Appeals found in an unpublished opinion on January 12, 2018, the district court violated the defendant’s constitutional right to present his theory of defense by excluding relevant evidence.” The court reversed his convictions, vacated his sentences, and remanded the matter for a new trial. The Kansas Supreme Court declined to review the reversal.
At his original sentencing, Jordan was sentenced to 620 months with the Department of Corrections. At the resentencing, however, defense counsel challenged use of the Jordan’s criminal history. The State conceded that the defendant’s 1985 out-of-state juvenile person felony adjudications could no longer be scored as part of his official criminal history, but argued his 1989 Kansas conviction for attempted indecent liberties with a child was properly scored as a person felony, as well as three additional nonperson felonies, McNett stated.
District Judge Carey Hipp adopted the State’s argument and sentenced Jordan to the standard sentence of 272 months for the rape conviction based on the revised criminal history. Judge Hipp then sentenced Jordan consecutively to an additional 32 months for the aggravated battery conviction for a total sentence of 304 months with the Kansas Department of Corrections. He is eligible to earn up to 15% good time credit. Jordan will be subject to lifetime post-release supervision and lifetime registration as a sexual offender.
