Thirty-one-year-old Joseph Jeffrey Rykiel was sentenced Monday for the death of 15-year-old Jessica Shearer of Garden City.

By Associated Press
Tue 08:30 AM 04/03/2012

A Great Bend man was sentenced to five years in prison in the death of a girl he injected with morphine last July.

Thirty-one-year-old Joseph Jeffrey Rykiel was sentenced Monday for the death of 15-year-old Jessica Shearer of Garden City. Rykiel entered an Alford plea in February to involuntary manslaughter.

Shearer was reported missing from the Barton County Youth Care Home three days before her death. She was found dead last July 4th in a basement room Rykiel was renting in Great Bend.

Barton County Attorney Doug Matthews says Rykiel used a morphine prescription for one of the home's occupants to inject Shearer at least twice. She died from an overdose.

Associated Press information from: The Garden City Telegram

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Judge denies Rykiel’s plea for leniency

POSTED April 3, 2012 10:43 p.m.
By Susan Thacker [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Joseph Rykiel

Joseph Rykiel, the man convicted in the death of 15-year-old Jessica Cheyanne Shearer after he injected her with morphine on July 4, 2011, was sentenced on Monday to four years and nine months in prison. Barton County District Judge Ron Svaty approved the standard sentence for someone with Rykiel’s criminal history, even though the defendant’s court-appoint attorney filed a motion seeking a reduced sentence.

After Rykiel, who is 31 years old, is released from the Kansas Department of Corrections, he’ll be on the state’s list of registered offenders.

On Feb. 1, Rykiel entered a plea of “no contest” to involuntary manslaughter, a reduction from the original charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and the county attorney’s office dropped charges of criminal sodomy with a child 14-16 years old and aggravated endangering of a child. In the plea agreement, Barton County Attorney Douglas Matthews said the state would oppose a bid for a lesser sentence, but would allow the defense counsel to recommend it.

Defense Attorney Robert Anderson Sr. filed a motion asking the judge to cut the sentence from 57 months to 29 or even 19 months, saying the full standard prison sentence would be “purely vindictive and without any rehabilitative effect.” Excuse me?? What is "purely vindictive" is this poor girl is DEAD because of this degenerate!!! He argued Rykiel had accepted responsibility for the girl’s death and spared her family the grief of a trial. Anderson also suggested there was plenty of blame to go around in the victim’s tragic death.

First, the motion states, there’s “the obvious failure of the Barton County Youth Care Inc.’s Home for Girls.” The victim told staff on July 1, 2011, she was going to run away, but she was allowed to go out onto the porch to talk to another girl. When she ran way, the staff “never notified the family,” the motion states. I would sue the Barto County Youth Care Inc.'s Home for Girls if I were the parents in a heartbeat!!!

St. Francis Academy Inc., the statewide placement agency, didn’t report she was missing until the following day, the motion continues. The girl’s mother learned her daughter wasn’t at the girls home when her other daughter received a posting from her on Facebook.

Her mother called the Great Bend Police Department in a panic and pleaded for an Amber Alert, media alerts or a neighborhood search because she was worried about her daughter not taking her medication, the motion continues. “Legitimate and reasonable requests of the victim’s mother were abruptly denied and/or ignored by the police.”

Finally, Anderson argued that the court should consider “the actions of an uncharged potential codefendant,” whose involvement contributed to the events.

Matthews filed a response to the defense motion, saying, “Neither the facts nor the law of this case support the defendant’s stated reasons for wishing a downward departure.” He argued that saying “it’s not all my fault” is not sufficient reason for a lesser sentence, and that anyone who has not been charged must be presumed innocent. Runaways don’t meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, Matthews added.

Shearer was originally from Sublette, but had been living in Garden City and then at the girls home in Great Bend.

According to the Kansas Department of Corrections, Rykiel has three drug-related convictions, one driving under the influence conviction and one aggravated robbery conviction, dating back to 2001. These came in Neosho, Crawford and Labette counties.

He had been in prison since September 2004 and was released Feb. 13, 2011.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

He has priors and he only gets 5 years? This is an Outrage!!

Thank you to Mary Hosington for these articles! [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

On Feb. 1, Rykiel entered a plea of “no contest” to involuntary manslaughter, a reduction from the original charge of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and the county attorney’s office dropped charges of criminal sodomy with a child 14-16 years old and aggravated endangering of a child.

And he only got 4 years and 9 months!!

It sounds like the police failed this girl and her family and so did the home that she was living at! The home gets off scott free? So did she run away to this guy? There's no way he should get a reduced sentence based on any of the reasons he lawyer brought up! It sounds like he got a reduced sentence anyway, just under five years! What a POS.

Not sure where or who she was running to but I think she was a real problem at home.