Lamonte McIntyre’s fight for compensation after wrongful conviction unlikely to end soon
In May, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office wrote to a Shawnee County judge about a man who had been wrongfully convicted of murder and kidnapping. The judge cleared Floyd Bledsoe the same day to receive more than $1 million in compensation.
That letter hasn’t come for Lamonte McIntyre, who was wrongfully convicted of a double murder.
Instead, Schmidt’s office has asked a judge to rule against McIntyre’s effort to be paid under a 2018 Kansas law that provides for the wrongfully convicted to receive compensation. Schmidt and McIntyre’s attorneys are both bracing for a process that could continue for months.
The two cases illustrate the different ways the state law can work. The claim by Bledsoe, absolved of a 1999 killing after serving 15 years, was finalized within months. McIntyre’s case appears poised to stretch on for nearly two years.
Former Gov. Jeff Colyer, who signed the law during a ceremony at McIntyre’s church, said “we should get this done.”
“I think this is exactly the kind of case the law was intended for. And frankly, it’s just past due. It’s time for him to be compensated,” Colyer said in an interview on Monday.
McIntyre, now in his 40s, was arrested at 17 and spent 23 years in prison as part of two life sentences. After his 1994 arrest, he was tried and convicted of murdering Doniel Quinn, 21, and Donald Ewing, 34, who were killed with a shotgun as they sat in a car.
McIntyre had maintained his innocence and that he didn’t know either man. The case against him included no gun, motive or physical evidence tying him to the crime.
He was freed in October 2017 after Wynadotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree Sr. stopped contesting the facts of his innocence midway through a hearing on his exoneration, a proceeding that had been expected to last a week.
The following May, Colyer signed House Bill 2579 to create a compensation program for the wrongfully convicted. Kansas became the 33rd state with such a law, which advocates hailed as a “gold standard.”
“When we signed the bill into law, I think there was widespread agreement that these are the types of situations that deserve compensation and that we make the situation right again and that we keep it short and simple,” Colyer said.
Under the law, individuals wrongfully convicted file a claim in district court to begin proceedings into whether they’re owed compensation. They must show that they didn’t commit the crime, among several other factors.
If the court rules in their favor, the individual receives $65,000 for each year in prison and at least $25,000 for each year spent on parole or post-release supervision.
Bledsoe filed his case in July 2018, just weeks after Colyer signed the bill. A little less than a year later, Schmidt’s office sent a letter to Shawnee County District Court Judge Franklin Theis that included orders to sign an expungement of Bledsoe’s record and issue him a certificate of innocence. The case wrapped up the same day without a hearing.
By contrast, Schmidt’s office signaled its intent to oppose – or at least slow down – McIntyre’s case in a court filing made just a few months after McIntyre filed for his certificate of innocence in March 2019.
Assistant Attorney General Shon Qualseth wrote in a July 31 filing that the state was “without sufficient information to form a belief as to the truth” of the core allegations in McIntyre’s petition – namely, that he is innocent. Qualseth asked that McIntyre receive nothing and that a judgment be entered against McIntyre.
McIntyre’s attorney, Cheryl Pilate, said nothing points to his guilt “because he’s not guilty.”
“There is widespread knowledge and understanding of Lamonte’s innocence and taking this position is just baffling to me,” Pilate said.
Sen. David Haley, a Kansas City Democrat, said the Legislature’s intent for the 2018 law had been misconstrued by Schmidt, “who in reality knows better.”
Schmidt spokesman C.J. Grover acknowledged in a statement on Monday that in some instances the Attorney General’s office has asked the court to expedite approval. But in McIntyre’s case, Grover said, the prior court record was insufficient for Schmidt to determine the requirements for a payout have been met.
Earlier this month, Schmidt’s office filed notices of its intent to request subpoenas to Kansas City, Kan., police, the Center for Behavioral Medicine and the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center.
Pilate said the subpoenas are “a good thing.”
“I don’t know that they are going to get all the answers they want there. They may get some,” Pilate said. “I’m not really sure what they’re looking for.”
The subpoenas also seek the medical records of Neil Edgar, a man known as “Monster” who the victims’ family has said is the real shooter.
Grover said evaluating McIntyre’s case has been more time-consuming because the factual record in the last court that reviewed his criminal case wasn’t fully developed. That is, in part, because prosecutors “cut the proceeding short.”
“In other words, evaluating Mr. McIntyre’s mistaken-conviction case requires more work by the State at this stage to develop and test facts because that work was not previously completed,” Grover said.
McIntyre’s exoneration hearing ended days early. Dupree dropped the case before testimony regarding possible law enforcement misconduct.
Pilate’s effort to exonerate McIntyre in 2017 raised allegations of misconduct on the part of the lead detective in the case, Roger Golubski, and then-Wyandotte County assistant prosecutor Terra Morehead.
A witness in the case later said she had been coerced by Golubski, who has denied the allegations. Pilate also questioned a previous relationship between Morehead, who is now a federal prosecutor, and J. Dexter Burdette, the judge who had presided over the case.
Burdette had been scheduled to testify in the hearing, but Dupree ended it before he could. Dupree didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday.
McIntyre’s case appears likely to continue well into next year. A hearing has been scheduled for September 2020 and a discovery deadline of Oct. 23, 2020, has been proposed.
If the court ever awards compensation, the law allows the State Finance Council to review the payment. The council, made up of legislative leaders, is chaired by Gov. Laura Kelly.
Star columnist Melinda Henneberger, in a piece published online Monday, said she arrived for an appointment last week with Kelly to discuss McIntyre but was turned away and told “that the governor had been advised that it would be unwise to say anything at all about his case.”
In a statement Monday afternoon, Kelly noted she voted for the 2018 compensation law “because I believe that when the state mistakenly and wrongfully convicts someone, that person deserves some compensation.” She said any questions about the status of McIntyre’s case should be directed to Schmidt.
Rep. Cindy Holscher, an Olathe Democrat, said lawmakers will keep a focus on McIntyre. The Legislature will return to Topeka in January and she said “a light” will be kept on the case.
“We don’t want Lamonte to be forgotten,” Holscher said.
Steve Vockrodt contributed to this report
This story corrects an earlier version that misspelled Donald Ewing’s name.
This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Lamonte McIntyre’s fight for compensation after wrongful conviction unlikely to end soon."