The Kansas Court of Appeals has issued a ruling in a case dating back to a Greenwood County shootout with law enforcement over 20 years ago.
Billy Joe Barker had appealed sentences on several convictions, saying they were illegal because the district court did not have resentencing jurisdiction in his case. Barker was involved in a dispute with a neighbor and his wife in 1997 that escalated into a shootout with several officers once law enforcement arrived. He was eventually convicted of attempted first-degree murder against three law enforcement officers, Timothy Soule, Ryan Winfrey and Calvin Schaeffer, as well as aggravated assault, aggravated battery, obstruction and domestic battery. He was sentenced to nearly 47 years in prison for the attempted murders of Soule and Winfrey, along with over 17 years for the attempted murder of Schaeffer.
Initially, the Court of Appeals reversed the attempted first-degree murder conviction involving Soule and an aggravated assault conviction. Prosecutors decided against re-trying Barker on that particular attempted murder count, so the court then established a new primary crime — the attempted murder of Winfrey — and resentenced Barker in 2001 to nearly 30 years on that count. Other sentence lengths remained the same, save for an aggravated assault conviction in the original case that was not listed during the secondary proceedings.
Two years ago, Barker said the more recent sentence was illegal because changing case law adjusted his criminal history score and district court lacked the proper jurisdiction. However, the Court of Appeals said district court did have proper jurisdiction and affirmed its resentencing ruling.
