photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Kenneth Wilson Mills is pictured Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, at his sentencing in Douglas County District Court.

A De Soto man was sentenced on Friday in Douglas County District Court to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years for aggravated sodomy of a preschool girl.

The man, Kenneth Wilson Mills, 36, was convicted by a jury in August 2022 of one felony count of aggravated sodomy of a person under the age of 14. He was originally charged with one felony count of rape, one felony count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and an additional count of aggravated sodomy of a child.

The jury last summer found Mills not guilty on the additional aggravated sodomy charge and the indecent liberties with a child charge, but jurors could not reach a verdict on the rape charge. After the verdict was read, the state indicated that it intended to retry Mills on the rape charge, but prosecutors later moved to dismiss the charge without prejudice, meaning it still could be refiled.

As the Journal-World previously reported, the charges relate to multiple incidents between August 2010 and May 2011 at a Lawrence apartment. Two girls, now 14 and 17, came forward with allegations in 2019 that Mills had assaulted them when they were young. Mills would have been 23 or 24 at the time of the incidents. The girls were not present at Friday’s sentencing.

Defense attorneys Cooper Overstreet and Nicholas David requested a downward departure from the Kansas sentencing guidelines to 195 months, or about 16 years, but Judge Sally Pokorny did not agree.

Overstreet argued that Mills has no prior criminal history other than a felony conviction for methamphetamine. He said the allegations against Mills were made 10 years after the incidents were said to have occurred and that at no point during that decade was Mills charged with any sex crimes.

“This is the type of crime that is committed in secrecy and is under-reported. Just because he hasn’t been charged with another crime does not convince me that it has not occurred,” Pokorny said.

The court also heard testimony on behalf of Mills from Gregory Nawalanic, the clinical director of Psychology Services at the University of Kansas Health System’s Strawberry Hill Campus, who performed a psychological evaluation of Mills. Nawalanic testified that Mills’ likelihood for re-offending was low in the next five years and that he was a good candidate for counseling.

Mills declined to speak at the sentencing because he said he planned to appeal. After the hearing he was returned to the Douglas County Jail, where he has been in custody since his $100,000 bond was revoked in August of 2021.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Kenneth Wilson Mills moments after he was sentenced to life in prison with a mandatory 25 years without the eligibility for parole on Feb. 24, 2023. Mills was convicted of one count of aggravated criminal sodomy with a child under the age of 14.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Mills’ sentence. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.