photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Junah A. Sisney walks to his court appearance on April 28, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

The attorney for a man alleged to have shot at a Baldwin City bar and library with the intent to kill says the man’s confession was coerced and should have been too bizarre for investigators to believe.

The defendant, Junah Augustus Sisney, 22, of Baldwin City, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one count of attempted capital murder. Sisney faces life in prison if he is convicted.

Sisney is alleged to have fired at multiple people on Dec. 30, 2022, outside of the Bullpen Bar, 811 Eighth St. in Baldwin City, before driving around the block, firing at more people near the Baldwin City Library, 800 Seventh St., then returning to the bar and firing at it again. He was caught by police minutes later after he was allegedly returning to the scene of the crime to run someone over to “ensure a fatality,” as the Journal-World reported.

Sisney returned from Larned State Hospital in January after spending several months there to have his mental competency restored, but his attorney, Nicholas David, asked the court to consider his mental health on the day of the incident and throw out the statements Sisney made to police.

During an all-day hearing where Judge Stacey Donovan heard from three police officers and a forensic psychologist, Sisney’s mental state and the actions of the officer were under scrutiny.

“Where’s the gun?”Baldwin City police officer Vanessa Schmalz yelled to Sisney, in a video presented to the court, as she held her gun to his back during a high-risk traffic stop. She then ordered Sisney to his knees and handcuffed him.

Schmalz said she was the first to make contact with Sisney. David said Schmalz started her interrogation of Sisney at that moment and that Sisney should have been advised of his Miranda rights.

Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald said that the line of questioning was well within the officer’s right and that locating the gun was a matter of public safety.

Sisney told Schmalz where the gun was — in his car — and then Scmalz continued to question him. She said that witnesses at the bar and library described two people in the vehicle that had fired the shots at the bar. So Schmalz asked Sisney where the passenger of the vehicle was.

Sisney said he was alone, but that didn’t satisfy Schmalz because when officers looked inside the vehicle, there were two full Taco Bell cups in the cup holders. Schmalz testified that she had to be sure that there wasn’t another person lying in wait to ambush the officers.

David contended that when officers secured Sisney’s gun and Sisney told them he was alone, they should have stopped asking him questions until he could be read his Miranda rights.

Schmalz was insistent with Sisney during the arrest in determining if there was another shooter. She told Sisney that witnesses saw the gun outside of the passenger window.

“It was just me. I was sticking my hand far out of the window,” Sisney explained while he was being placed into a patrol vehicle.

Schmalz then asked who Sisney was shooting at.

“Anyone innocent-looking,” Sisney replied.

Schmalz walked away from Sisney and said to another officer, “I’m shocked he didn’t turn around and shoot at me.” Schmalz then left Sisney in the back of a patrol vehicle and continued to search the vehicle and relay information to arriving Douglas County sheriff’s deputies.

In the patrol vehicle, Sisney began pounding his face and shoulder on the window.

Baldwin City police officer William Butrum testified that he heard the banging and went to distract Sisney long enough for the officers to finish their work at the scene.

Butrum asked Sisney why he was banging his head on the glass. Sisney asked for some water and said he was “angry” and that he “wanted to kill people.” Sisney said that the people at the bar were “homosexual” and they “weren’t good for the church.”

“What church?” Butrum asked, and Sisney said, “The one down the street from where I just shot.”

Butrum promised he would get Sisney some water as soon as the officers finished with Sisney’s car and walked away. As he did, Sisney began to repeat to himself “I am very healthy. I am heterosexual” as he sat alone in the police car.

David said it was these interactions that may have led Sisney to believe he had already surrendered his right to remain silent. He said the statements Sisney made to Schmalz and Butrum without a Miranda warning should be thrown out and that the statements made to Douglas County sheriff’s detective Lance Flachsbarth immediately afterward at the Baldwin City police station should be too.

Flachsbarth testified on Monday, when his video interview with Sisney was played in court, that his conversation with Sisney was anything but coerced and that it began with friendly chit-chat and a Miranda warning. Sisney understood the warning, Flachsbarth said, and he waived his right to speak to an attorney.

He said some statements that Sisney made were strange — such as Sisney’s comment that “he lived with his own penis” and that his home was a “hot tub and that he could breathe underwater” — but the majority of Sisney’s statements were logical and pointed.

Flachsbarth said Sisney stayed on topic and was coherent throughout the interview. Sisney was adamant that he acted alone in the shooting and was very specific when giving details about how and where he got the gun, Flachsbarth said.

David said that Flachsbarth should have recognized Sisney’s mental health issues when Sisney told Flachsbarth that he had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder and hadn’t taken medication for three years.

In support of his argument, David presented testimony from forensic psychologist Gregory Nawalanic who had said that Sisney’s autism and psychotic thought disorder diagnosis made him susceptible to suggestions when being questioned by police. Nawalanic also said that Sisney could have confessed to police that he shot at the bar and wanted to kill people as part of a “psychotic confabulation.”

Nawalanic said that Sisney had a below-average IQ but understood his Miranda rights from a factual perspective but that Sisney could not translate that understanding into a practical application. He said Sisney knew he could remain silent but believed he would appear guilty to the judge if he did so, so Sisney felt compelled to speak.

“It was against his best interest,” Nawalanic said.

Greenwald asked Nawalanic if he had dealt with other defendants in his work who waived their Miranda rights and spoke to police “against their best interest” and did not share Sisney’s mental issues.

“Yes,” Nawalanic replied.

Nawalanic testified that he has spent a lot of time with Sisney since he has been in custody and that Sisney had been a totally different person while medicated. He said that the Sisney he saw in the interview with Flachsbarth was “beyond un-medicated.”

Nawalanic said that Sisney’s autism disorder substantially impaired his processing speed. He said that when officers took Sisney into custody at gunpoint they triggered a psychosis that should make any waiver of Miranda rights invalid.

Greewnald said suppressing Sisney’s statements after he knowingly waived his Miranda rights and confessed to trying to kill multiple people just because the confession “was against his best interests” was absurd and that anyone who made that decision could be seen as “bizarre” by a reasonable person.

Donovan said she would take David’s suppression request under consideration and return a ruling on May 23.

Sisney remains in custody at the Douglas County jail on a $500,000 bond.