photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jesse Lee Green

A man who refused to surrender his hatchet last year when entering The Village and who terrorized staff by smashing an office window was sentenced to two years of probation on Wednesday.

The man, Jesse Lee Green, 39, was originally charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of aggravated robbery, one felony count of aggravated assault, one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of criminal damage. The charges were reduced to a single count of felony aggravated assault after a plea agreement with the state. Green pleaded no contest to the charge in March.

The charges were in connection with an incident on April 21, 2024, at The Village, 256 N. Michigan St., a collection of pallet shelters for homeless individuals,as the Journal-World reported.

On Wednesday, Judge Amy Hanley sentenced Green to 12 months in prison, which she then suspended to two years of probation, following Kansas sentencing guidelines.

According to a presentence investigation, Green did not have any prior convictions that would affect his sentence. Court records indicate that Green has one conviction for misdemeanor battery from 2020 in Douglas County.

Green’s attorney, Gary West, said that Green had secured a place to live at an Oxford, or halfway, house, was recently granted disabled status and will begin receiving payments from Social Security. West did not say what the nature of Green’s disability was. He asked the court not to impose the standard requirement that Green maintain employment while on probation, and Hanley agreed.

The victim of Green’s assault, who was inside the office at The Village when Green smashed the window, wrote a victim impact statement to the court, but it was not read into the record. West said the letter asked the court to be lenient with Green.