photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Kevin Lee Lemon

An Overbrook man who assaulted another man with a firearm last summer was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison for the crime.

The man, Kevin Lee Lemon, 54, pleaded no contest to the offense on July 3 in Douglas County District Court. The offense falls under Kansas’ Special Rule 1, which dictates a presumptive prison sentence if a firearm is used in the commission of a person felony.

Lemon was arrested Aug. 31, 2023, for aggravated assault against an older man, who spoke briefly at Lemon’s sentencing hearing, telling Judge Amy Hanley, “I am the victim” and “I want to forgive him.”

The man did not discuss the details of the incident, but said it made him appreciate that “every day is a blessing.”

He added that he wished everyone a “happy day” now because he realized that “every day, one split second, and you can be killed.”

Lemon sobbed as the man said he forgave him, and he apologized through tears as he made his own statement to the court.

“I’ve regretted this since the second it happened,” he told Hanley. …”This has been killing me.”

The state and the defense both recommended a 15-month sentence, which is nine months less than the 24 months the state sentencing guidelines call for. Hanley accepted that recommendation, noting that she found substantial and compelling reasons for the lesser term, namely that the parties and the victim had agreed.

Most important, though, in her consideration, she told Lemon, was the fact that he had accepted responsibility and had clearly expressed “authentic” remorse for his crime.

However she noted that Lemon had a prior offense — in Marion County in 2021 — in which he had used a firearm while making a criminal threat.

“We now have two incidents,” she said, indicating that the second incident triggered a requirement that he register as a violent for the rest of his life.