The Kansas Court of Appeals has upheld a ruling from Lyon County District Court in an offender registration case.
A Court of Appeals panel upheld the ruling in Kansas v. Donald Gilkes after the defendant was convicted 15 years ago in Missouri on three counts of sexual misconduct involving a child. Gilkes was told to register quarterly for the rest of his life as part of his sentence.
Gilkes was convicted for trespassing along a Lyon County railroad in 2015 and sentenced to jail, but he completed his registration requirement and was allowed work release — only to disappear until his discovery in Portland, Oregon, and subsequent transfer back to Emporia in late 2016. Gilkes was later convicted on three counts of failure to register as an offender.
Gilkes changed attorneys before sentencing, seeking a new trial that was eventually denied, and then appealed — saying his original defense team was ineffective. The appeals court disagreed, saying the defense methods and tactics were “not deficient.”
