Girard ? A Crawford County judge has ordered that convicted murderer Gary Kleypas remain in the county jail pending his likely death sentence in December.

That’s not sitting well with some who worry that Kleypas, who has been convicted numerous times and previously sentenced to death, should be in a maximum security state prison and Crawford County taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for his stay.

A Wyandotte County jury earlier this month recommended the death penalty for Kleypas who was convicted of the 1996 stabbing death of 20-year-old Carrie Williams.

Kleypas was scheduled to go back to the maximum security prison in El Dorado. But Judge Donald Noland issued a court order keeping Kleypas where he is until his sentencing on Dec. 3.

Noland has issued a gag order in the case so neither he nor attorneys involved in the case could talk about the decision. But Noland said it wasn’t unusual for people awaiting sentencing to stay in county jails.

Kleypas was originally sentenced to death, but his sentence was thrown out after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled the state’s death penalty as unconstitutional in 2004. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2006, reinstating the death penalty.

The court also threw out Kleypas’ sentence because of a juror instruction error, forcing officials to put Kleypas on trial again for a new sentence.

Sen. Jim Barone said the cost for those continuous do-overs shouldn’t be placed on Crawford County.

“This whole redo was caused by errors made by the judicial personnel at the state level,” said Barone, D-Frontenac. “And with Kleypas being held in Crawford County, the Crawford County taxpayers are having to foot the bill for his incarceration.”

Barone said he’s mainly concerned about public safety.

“It seems clear to me that a twice-convicted murderer, such as him, should be held in maximum security facilities in El Dorado,” he said. “That facility and those guards are equipped to deal with dangerous criminals such as Kleypas, and that’s where I believe he should be held, period.

“Sheriff (Sandy) Horton does a great job,” Barone said. “But it is out of the ordinary to have a dangerous criminal kept there for an extended period of time. I hope for him to be moved to El Dorado as soon as possible, for the good of the citizens of southeast Kansas and the state of Kansas.”

The Kansas Attorney General’s office said that Kleypas will likely be moved to El Dorado once he’s been sentenced, but it doesn’t plan to file a motion to move him before that.

“I’m under the understanding that he’s a state prisoner,” Horton said. “So there’s some concern and displeasure with having him here.”

Horton said one of the jail’s three housing areas was maximum security.