Man convicted of 1999 rape and robbery at shoe store challenges 54-year sentence

A 54-year-old man convicted of a 1999 rape and robbery at Payless ShoeSource, 3231 Iowa St., is challenging the 54-year prison sentence Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin handed down in 2001.

Terry McIntyre, of Kansas City, Kan., was found guilty in 2000 on charges of rape, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated robbery and kidnapping for a July 1999 incident in which he pistol-whipped one clerk and raped another at the shoe store.

Terry McIntyre

The crime led to a nationally televised plea for help in finding McIntyre on “America’s Most Wanted” before he was caught in September 1999 in Kansas City, Mo.

In 2002, the Kansas Court of Appeals upheld his conviction on appeal. Now, McIntyre’s attorney, Adam Hall, says his client’s sentence is illegal under a 2014 Kansas Supreme Court ruling on the state’s sentencing guidelines.

In McIntyre’s original sentencing, prosecutors determined his criminal history score by classifying offenses he committed before 1993 as person felonies, which carry harsher penalties. Hall argued Wednesday that the state supreme court’s ruling says that crimes committed prior to the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act in 1993 cannot be classified as person or nonperson because the distinction didn’t exist before the law.

Assistant Douglas County District Attorney Catherine Decena said the ruling should not be implemented retroactively on sentences prior to 2014.

“The new rule has gone against the face of 10 years of how (defendants) have been sentenced,” Decena said.

Decena also said that if McIntyre felt his sentence was illegal, he should have brought the issue up in his appeal.

“By failing to brief that argument (in his direct appeal), he’s effectively waived that argument,” Decena said.

Martin did not say when she might announce her decision on the matter.