TOPEKA—A three-judge panel of the Kansas Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday, April 15, in the Robinson Courtroom at the Washburn University School of Law, 1700 SW College, in Topeka.
Judge Michael B. Buser will be the presiding judge for the panel that also includes Judge Caleb Stegall and Senior Judge John J. Bukaty.
Attorneys for each side of a case are allotted time to present their arguments and judges can ask questions. The court will then take each case under consideration. Written decisions are issued later, usually within about 60 days.
Following are summaries of two cases to be heard:
9 a.m. — April 15, 2014
Case No. 110,130: State of Kansas v. Miles E. Theurer
On May 7, 2013, Miles E. Theurer pled no contest to two counts of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol. The sentences for these offenses, as provided by the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines, called for presumptive imprisonment. The district court granted Theurer’s request for a downward dispositional departure. He was sentenced to underlying concurrent terms of 41 months’ imprisonment, ordered to serve 60 days in jail, and granted 36 months’ probation under house arrest. The state appeals the district court’s granting of Theurer’s downward dispositional departure motion.
1:30 p.m. — April 15, 2014
Case No. 108,301: State of Kansas v. Stephen Alan Macomber
Stephen Alan Macomber was involved in a dispute that resulted in the shooting death of Ryan Lofton on June 7, 2010. A jury convicted Macomber of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a firearm. On appeal, Macomber, who maintains the shooting was accidental, contends the trial court should not have admitted evidence that he later shot a law enforcement officer in Marshall County, or a coroner’s opinion that the cause of Lofton’s death was homicide. In addition to arguing the inadmissibility of other evidence, Macomber challenges the accuracy of the jury instructions, the propriety of the prosecutor’s conduct, and the constitutionality of the criminal possession of a firearm conviction.
The full docket is as follows:
9 a.m. — April 15, 2014
Case No. 110,130: State of Kansas v. Miles E. Theurer
Case No. 110,094: Glassman Corporation v. Champion Bldrs, LLC
Case No. 109,313: State of Kansas v. Breonna M. Wilkins
1:30 p.m. — April 15, 2014
Case No. 108,301: State of Kansas v. Stephen Alan Macomber
Case No. 109,118: State of Kansas v. Santine White
Case No. 109,688: State of Kansas v. Mathew Scott Evertson
Case No. 110,315: Kite’s Bar & Grill, Inc. d/b/a Kite’s Grille & Bar v. Kansas Department of Revenue Alcoholic Beverage Control Division