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PAWNEE COUNTY– James Speer, 32, of Larned, appeared in the Pawnee County District Court this week for trial regarding two alleged Jessica’s Law sexual offenses alleged to have occurred in 2013, according to Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett.
The matter was originally scheduled to be presented to a jury, but Speer waived his right to a jury trial on July 3, 2024, and asked to proceed with a bench trial.
Pawnee County District Judge Bruce Gatterman presided over the bench trial. Prior to trial, the defendant gave the State notice of his intent to rely on an alibi defense.
The State presented testimony that during a conversation with her mother in August of 2020 the victim disclosed that, when she was approximately 8 years old, she had been sexually assaulted at a party her father took her to.
She stated the assault occurred when a man asked her to sit on his lap near a bonfire. The girl also told her mother that they ultimately spent the night at the party because her father had been drinking heavily. After she had fallen asleep, the victim remembered being awakened to find the same man’s face and he was assaulting her. The victim told her mother that she did not know that man that did it, but she would “definitely remember his face if she saw it again.”
The mother testified at trial that after her daughter’s disclosure she reached out to the girl’s father and was able to determine the party in question occurred sometime in 2013 in Garfield, Kansas. While the father could not remember the names of the men at the party, he did remember the names of a couple woman that he had attended the party with. The mother further testified that she utilized social media to reach out to the women. One of the women responded to her and gave her the names of two men at the party, one of whom was James Speer. The mother was able to obtain pictures of Speer and the other man and sent the photos to her daughter electronically. The girl testified at trial that when she opened the photo of the other man, she thought it kind of looked like the assailant, but not exactly. However, when she opened the photo of Speer she instantly couldn’t breathe, and she had a panic attack.
The Pawnee County Sheriff’s Department was then notified about the allegations by the mother after the victim identified James Speer as her assailant. A formal forensic interview of the girl was performed by the Child Advocacy Center in Great Bend, Kansas.
Law enforcement testified at trial their investigation revealed that the father had in fact learned of the allegation the day following the party and had told the women he had attended the party with about the allegation. His daughter, however, later downplayed the actual touching after the father said he was going to kill the man. As such, the father never notified law enforcement.
When law enforcement interviewed the two women identified by the father, they learned that one of the two women had been the live-in girlfriend of James Speer at the time of the party. Both women testified that Speer was at the party, that they saw the girl on his lap, that Speer was the only person’s lap the girl sat on, and that they had also saw Speer carry the girl into the house after she fell asleep. They further testified the other man identified at the party had left before anyone had gone to bed. The other man identified at the party died in 2015.
The victim’s father also testified at the trial about remembering Speer being at the party and how his daughter had sat on Speer’s lap.
Additionally, law enforcement discovered that after Speer’s girlfriend learned about the allegation against Speer the day following the party in question, the woman immediately took her own daughter, who was two years old at the time, to the Pawnee Valley Community Hospital (PVCH) for a sexual assault exam.
The medical records reflected that the exam took place on May 26, 2013. The records also indicated the exam was being requested due to an allegation that the child’s mother’s boyfriend, James Speer, had put his hands on a 7 year old girl the night before. The records also indicated that the mother lived with James Speer in Garfield but did not intend to return to the home. Based on the information provided, PVCH made referrals to law enforcement and DCF.
A current detective for the sheriff’s department assigned to the case testified that based on his review of the file it appeared no follow-up was done on the referral as Speer was arrested on July 2, 2013, and subsequently charged with having a sexual relationship with a 14 year old girl. Speer has been in custody since that time.
As part of the evidence at trial, the parties stipulated that in 2015 a jury of twelve persons convicted, James Edwin Speer, of two counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a 14 year old child. Specifically, the jury found (1) James Edwin Speer had sexual intercourse with a 14 year old child in an apartment in Larned, Kansas, on or about 24th day of May to on or about the 7th day of June, 2013; and (2) James Edwin Speer had sexual intercourse with a 14 year old child in an apartment in Larned, Kansas, on or about 7th day of June to on or about the 30th day of June, 2013.
Following the presentation of the State’s case, the defendant took the stand on his own behalf. Speer testified that he had not been at the party in question as he had already moved out of the home on May 1st and that based on the evidence presented at the jury trial in his 2015 conviction it was impossible for him to have committed the crimes currently charged as he was having a sexual relationship with the 14 year old during that time frame. Defense counsel then asked in support of their alibi defense that the Court to take judicial notice of the trial testimony of the prior jury trial.
The parties presented closing arguments on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday afternoon Judge Gatterman announced that as the trier of fact he found the victim’s identification of Speer being her assailant persuasive and when combining that with the eyewitness testimony placing Speer at the party, the victim being on Speer’s lap, and there being no other identifiable possible perpetrator, the Court found the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that on or about May 25 or 26, 2013, in Pawnee County, Kansas, the defendant James Edwin Speer had sexual intercourse as defined by Kansas law and then engaged in oral sodomy as defined by Kansas law with a child under the age of 14 years of age at a time when the defendant was 18 years of age or older. Accordingly, the Court found the defendant guilty of Rape of a Child Under 14 years of age and guilty of Aggravated Oral Sodomy of a Child Under 14 years of age.
Following the reading of his verdicts, Judge Gatterman advised Speer of his duty to register as sex offender under the Kansas Offender Registration Act and ordered a presentence investigation report be completed to determine the defendant’s criminal history. Sentencing will be scheduled for a later date.
Under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines, Speer faces a presumptive prison sentence between 147 months and 653 months in the custody of the Department of Corrections depending on his criminal history. Based on his prior sex offenses, Speer now also faces the possibility of a mandatory 40 year sentence under the Jessica’s Law sentencing provisions.
Speer is currently in the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections serving a sentence for his 2015 convictions.
Pawnee County Attorney Douglas McNett presented the State’s case. Speer was represented by Joe Shepack of Great Bend, Kansas.