Date: 09-13-2024

Case Style:

State of Kansas v. Justin Qualls

Case Number: 126,205

Judge: Thomas M. Sutherland

Court: District Court, Johnson County, Kansas

Plaintiff's Attorney: Johnson County, Kansas District Attorney's Office

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Olathe, Kansas sexual exploitation of a child criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant.

Having worked out an agreement with the State, Qualls entered his plea in January 2023 and was sentenced about six weeks later. Qualls admitted to possessing child pornography-a form of sexual exploitation of a child defined in K.S.A. 21-5510(a)(2) as having for sexual or prurient purposes a "visual depiction" of a person less than 18 years old "engaging in sexually explicit conduct." As part of the plea agreement, Qualls admitted that the child depicted in the pornography was younger than 13 years old.

Qualls had no relevant criminal history, and the crime of conviction was a severity level 5 person felony. So Qualls came within a border box of the sentencing grid and faced presumptive incarceration. But consistent with the plea agreement, the district court imposed a standard guidelines sentence of 32 months in prison and placed Qualls on probation for 36 months. In addition to the criminal sentence, the district court ordered Qualls to comply with KORA. Under K.S.A. 22-4906(d)(7), a person convicted of sexual exploitation of a child must register and report for life if the child was less than 14 years old. Based on Qualls' admission during his plea, the district court found K.S.A. 22-4906(d)(7) applied and ordered lifetime KORA compliance.

Defendant appealed.

Outcome: Affirmed.

State v. Qualls, 126,205 (Kan. App. Sep 13, 2024)

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

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