photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Joshua Moore Jeffcoat, left, appears with his attorney, Hatem Chahine, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man with a lengthy criminal record narrowly avoided a prison term Wednesday for felony criminal threat after a Douglas County judge granted a departure from the state sentencing guidelines and gave him probation instead.

“If you have the least misstep” while on probation, Judge Sally Pokorny warned the man, “you’re going to go to prison.”

The man, Joshua Moore Jeffcoat, 36, was originally charged with aggravated residential burglary and criminal threat, both felonies, and one count of misdemeanor theft for an incident in early July. However, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office gave him a deal that allowed him to plead no contest to the threat and to have the other two counts dropped. Even with the one remaining count, Jeffcoat still faced a presumptive prison term because of having “20 or so misdemeanors” in his past, as his attorney, Hatem Chahine, characterized his criminal history.

Chahine on Wednesday described the July incident as Jeffcoat being high on methamphetamine, walking into an apartment “he had no business being in” and making threatening statements that “alarmed” the apartment’s occupants. What Jeffcoat said was not mentioned Wednesday.

But Chahine argued for probation, reasoning that Jeffcoat had engaged in “significant use of meth and opioids since age 19” and that his criminal record was a “direct result of this.” Chahine said that some of Jeffcoat’s numerous misdemeanors had been aggregated into felonies, explaining his high criminal history score.

Jeffcoat himself addressed Pokorny, saying “I’m well aware of my past” and “I cleaned up.” He said he was trying to get his kids back, indicating that he had five children and had apparently lost custody of most or all of them.

Prosecutors from the DA’s Office, when asked by the judge for their input on the request for probation, said, “The state stands silent,” which they had agreed to say as part of the plea deal.

Pokorny ultimately sentenced Jeffcoat to 14 months in prison, which she suspended to one year of “intensively supervised” probation that will include outpatient treatment for drug addiction and other strict conditions.

She said that her reason for granting the departure to probation was because any prior felonies Jeffcoat had “were old” and because the bulk of his history was aggregated misdemeanors.

“My belief (is) that it’s your addiction that has kept you in the criminal justice system,” she said, noting that she had handled many of his cases and that he had “five years of sobriety and 20 years of not being sober.”

She cautioned Jeffcoat that should he violate any terms of his probation that he won’t get the benefit of graduated sanctions, such as a few days in jail, but will go straight to prison.

“There will be no grace,” she said.