A 21-year-old Great Bend man who fondled a 5-year-old girl sometime between Dec. 8, 2019, and Feb. 5 of this year was transferred Friday from the Barton County Jail to the Kansas Department of Corrections, where he will complete a 15-year-prison sentence. Austin Lee Blair was incarcerated at the El Dorado Correctional Facility’s Reception and Diagnostic Unit, where inmates receive orientation and are assigned to a custody classification, appropriate programs and a permanent housing assignment.
Blair was arrested and booked into the county jail on Feb. 14, and charged with four off-grid person felonies involving children born in 2014 and 2009. Barton County District Court records described the victims as two young girls.
He was in the county jail in lieu of a $1 million bond and remained there after he was sentenced by District Judge Carey Hipp on Aug. 31, until his release to the Kansas Department of Corrections on Dec. 4.
In the original charges, Counts I and II alleged he fondled the victims with the intent to arouse or satisfy sexual desires, defined as aggravated indecent liberties with a child. Counts III and IV alleged he engaged in aggravated criminal sodomy with the younger victim.
Blair entered a guilty plea to Count I earlier this year in exchange for the dismissal of other charges.
Court records note that under Kansas law, an off-grid person felony requires a minimum term of 25 years but there were mitigating circumstances in this case that justified a downward departure to the sentence.
Defense attorney Benjamin Fisher argued that Blair “was 19 years old at the time of the offense and due to immaturity, Mr. Blair did not fully understand the situation.” Blair was also under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbances, Fisher stated. “Prior to committing the offenses, Mr. Blair was homeless and had been completely disowned by his family.” He also “suffers from a history of severe depression and anxiety which had led to numerous suicide attempts, including one while incarcerated.”
Fisher’s motion for a lighter sentence also noted that Blair entered a guilty plea to one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, “taking responsibility for his actions.”
Court records also show that the State, represented by Assistant Barton County Attorney J. Colin Reynolds, “with permission of the victim’s family does not oppose the request for departure down to 180 months (15 years).”
Blair’s sex offender evaluation recommended treatment in a correctional setting and the Secretary of Corrections will not allow him to attend treatment until he is within two to three years of release, so this will allow him to receive treatment that much earlier, Fisher added.
After serving his sentence, Blair will be subject to lifetime parole and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life.
