Former employee who stole Joyland clown gets 15 months

Every so often after Joyland Amusement Park closed for good in 2006, its owners, Margaret and Stan Nelson, would go there to check on its condition.

Once, they found Damian Mayes, a former employee, taking props out of the Whacky Shack haunted house.

He said he was taking the memorabilia home so it wouldn’t fall victim to thieves. In the past, he had been responsible for keeping Joyland’s life-sized organ-playing clown, Louie, from that same fate during the off-season.

But years later, it was Mayes who was being prosecuted for theft after authorities discovered a cache of missing Joyland items in his house in February 2015. Louie was there, too, sitting in a chair.

On Tuesday, moments before Mayes was sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing the clown, a Sedgwick County judge read aloud a letter expressing the disappointment the Nelson family felt knowing Mayes was the criminal he had once purported to be protecting the park from.

“My family and I were subjected to and were the victims of trespass, vandalism, arson and theft. We saw our beloved park destroyed” after it closed, Margaret Spear, formerly Nelson, wrote in the letter.

“When Louie the Clown disappeared it was as if part of our family was lost.”

When the family learned of Mayes’ involvement, “we felt violated and betrayed,” she continued. “Damian had worked for us. He was someone we had trusted, and this is how he repaid us for our kindness.”

Mayes, 41, pleaded no contest to one count of felony theft in October just before he was scheduled to go to trial on three charges connected to the case.

District Judge Kevin O’Connor imposed the sentence recommended in his plea agreement and ordered that it run concurrently with a prison sentence Mayes is already serving for a 2008 Harvey County child sex crimes case. He will be eligible for parole in 2028.

Louie disappeared from Joyland, 2801 S. Hillside, sometime in 2005 or 2006 but wasn’t officially reported stolen until 2010.

In addition to working at the amusement park and taking the clown home during the off-season, Mayes helped restore Louie in 1994 and repaired and renovated the Wurlitzer the clown appeared to play.

This story was originally published December 13, 2016 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Former employee who stole Joyland clown gets 15 months."