photo by: Journal-World File Photo

A Lawrence police car sits outside a crime scene in this file photo from 2009.

Douglas County saw crime rates drop to at least a 15-year low from 2017 to 2018, a new report shows.

However, violent crimes — which had consistently risen since 2015 — were nearly stagnant.

The latest edition of an annual report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, released Thursday, focuses on “index crimes.” In that category, the FBI includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault/battery, burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft.

Law enforcement agencies statewide report index crimes to KBI each year. In Douglas County, those agencies include the sheriff’s office and the Lawrence, Baldwin City, Eudora and University of Kansas police departments.

For Douglas County, the report shows that total index crimes dropped 10.14% from 2017 to 2018; it’s also below 4,000 for the first time since the 2014 report. Property crimes fell by 418 — an 11% drop. But violent crimes fell just 2.2%, from 410 to 401.

Murders in Douglas County and statewide

Similar to the state as a whole, murders in Douglas County leveled off after 2017. They more than quadrupled, from two in 2016 to nine in 2017, then fell back to two in 2018. That is below the 10-year average of 2.7.

In Kansas, murders spiked 18.9%, from 148 in 2016 to 176 in 2017, then dropped 17%, back to 146, in 2018, the report shows.

During both 2014 and 2017, Douglas County tallied nine murders, according to the KBI report.

As the Journal-World has reported, there were 10 killings in Douglas County in 2017. However, in the Dec. 27, 2017 death of 30-year-old Lei-Ala A. Turner, Willie K. Franklin, then 27, was charged with involuntary homicide. He is currently serving his 5 1/2-year sentence, according to online records.

As the Journal-World has reported, the number of murders in 2017 has strained the judicial system. Some of the cases have involved multiple suspects.

On top of those, nearly five years later, one murder case from 2014 is still pending in Douglas County District Court.

Rontarus Washington Jr., 23, is scheduled for trial starting Sept. 9 in connection with the murder of Justina Altamirano Mosso. Mosso, 19, was killed in her apartment on Nov. 7, 2014. Washington’s court case has dragged on, with a jury trial set and then rescheduled at least seven times, according to online court records.

• • •

Here’s where the 2017 murder cases that have gone to court stand, according to Journal-World archives, online Douglas County District Court records and the Kansas Department of Corrections:

• Danny W. Queen, 38, of Eudora, is currently serving a nearly 19-year sentence for the murder of Bo Hopson, 32, at D-Dubs Bar and Grill.

• Three men — Tyrone J. Carvin, Ramone Singleton and Shawn K. Smith — were charged in connection with the murder of 23-year-old Cameron Hooks at Lawrence’s Motel 6. A judge gave Carvin, 20, a 23-year sentence and Singleton a nearly 10-year sentence. Smith pleaded to a lesser crime of robbery on July 11 and is set to be sentenced Aug. 14.

• Steven Austin Drake III, 22, is charged in connection with the Sept. 19, 2017 shooting of Bryce Holladay, 26, of Lawrence. Drake is currently scheduled to go to trial beginning Aug. 19.

• Three men — Anthony L. Roberts Jr., Ahmad M. Rayton and Dominique J. McMillon — were charged in connection with the Oct. 1, 2017 shooting deaths of Leah Elizabeth Brown, 22, Colwin Lynn Henderson, 20, and Tre’Mel Dupree Dean-Rayton, 24, near the intersection of 11th and Massachusetts streets. Rayton, 23, pleaded guilty to attempted voluntary manslaughter in April and was sentenced to 10 years. McMillon, 20, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in March and was released from jail. A jury found Roberts guilty of the three murders on June 25, and he is currently scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 1.

• Two women — Tria L. Evans, 40, and Christina Towell, 39 — were convicted and sentenced in the murder of Joel Wales, 34, of Eudora. Evans, of Lawrence, was sentenced March 19 to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 50 years. Her friend Towell, of Leavenworth, was also given a life sentence, with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.

The other two murder victims of 2017 were Erin Berg, 36, and her daughter Mazey Berg, 3. Mazey’s father, Peter Sander, 41, shot Erin Berg on Aug. 13 in rural Douglas County, then drove to the Baker Wetlands, where he fatally shot Mazey and then himself, the Journal-World reported.

Violent crime

Here’s a closer look at the numbers of violent crime incidents in Douglas County, from 2017 to 2018, according to the latest report. KBI counts violent crimes by the number of victims. The numbers in parentheses represent the 10-year averages for each category.

null

null

• Rape: Down from 77 to 61, a 20.8% drop (61.3)

• Robbery: Down from 77 to 63, an 18.2% drop (61.4)

• Aggravated assault/battery: Up from 247 to 275, an 11.3% increase (274.3)

• Rate of violent crimes per 1,000 population: Down from 3.4 to 3.3. The rate is below the 10-year average of 3.5 as well as the 15-year average of 3.7.

Property crime

Property crimes in Douglas County fell in all categories from 2017 to 2018, according to the latest report. KBI counts property crimes by the number of incidents, except for motor vehicle thefts, which are counted per vehicle stolen. Again, the numbers in parentheses represent Douglas County’s 10-year averages for each category.

• Burglary: Down from 573 to 499, a 12.9% drop (567.1)

• Theft: Down from 2,981 to 2,673, a 10.3% drop (3,310.7)

• Motor vehicle theft: Down from 247 to 211, a 14.6% drop (193.6)

• Rate of property crimes per 1,000 population: Down from 31.5 to 27.8. Both numbers are well below the 10-year average of 35.2 and the 15-year average of 39.8.

Statewide trends

For the state of Kansas as a whole, total index crimes from 2017 to 2018 reversed a three-year climb, falling from 93,091 to 92,062, or by 1.1%.

Property crimes primarily accounted for the overall decrease. They dropped from 81,349 to 79,695, or about 2%, the report shows.

Violent index crimes, however, continued to increase, as they have since 2013: from 11,742 in 2017 to 12,367 in 2018, or a 5.3% increase, according to the KBI report. The violent crime rate is currently 16.5% above the 10-year average, according to a KBI news release accompanying the report.

Campus crime

The University of Kansas and any other postsecondary institutions that employ their own police forces also report to KBI.

For 2018, KUPD reported 165 index crimes, or a rate of 7.7 per 1,000 population. That included seven violent crimes — three rapes, one battery and three aggravated assaults/batteries — for a rate of 0.3. The vast majority, though, were property crimes: 13 burglaries, 142 thefts and three motor vehicle thefts, for a rate of 7.3 per 1,000 population. There were no arson cases.

KU’s crime rate per 1,000 population was the highest among public four-year universities, followed by Kansas State, 6.9; Pittsburg State, 6.7; Wichita State, 4.7; Emporia State, 3.3; and Fort Hays State, 2.5.

Colleges and universities that participate in the federal financial aid program are also required by the Clery Act to compile annual crime reports, though crimes are reported slightly differently. That report is generally released in late September.