photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Austin Wayne Kidder

An Olathe man has been given a suspended sentence of more than two years in prison after a Douglas County jury earlier this year found him guilty of choking a woman and destroying her cellphone so that she could not call for help.

Judge Amy Hanley on Thursday sentenced Austin Wayne Kidder, 32, to 26 months for aggravated domestic battery, the maximum allowed by the Kansas sentencing guidelines, and six months in the Douglas County Jail for criminal damage to property. However, she suspended the sentence to 24 months of probation and made the criminal damage sentence run concurrently, as requested by Assistant District Attorney Madeline Bjorklun and in accordance with state sentencing guidelines, which list the crimes as presumptive probation.

At his trial in February, a woman testified that during an argument in August 2022, Kidder grabbed her around the neck, dropped her to the ground and choked her until she lost consciousness. The woman said she believed she was going to die, according to court records. After the attack, she grabbed her phone to call 911, but Kidder smashed the phone on the ground, she said. The police came to the woman’s aid after a neighbor heard the disturbance and called 911.

Hanley noted at Kidder’s sentencing hearing that he had recently been convicted of harming the same victim in another county.

On April 1, he pleaded no contest to aggravated battery and theft for events that occurred in October 2022 in Johnson County.

“It is quite concerning that this happened twice with the same individual,” Hanley said, imploring Kidder to take the treatment program and other conditions of his probation sentence seriously.