photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Department of Corrections

Jason Lee Ellison is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Lawrence man who once was given a reprieve amid a 26-year prison sentence spent the next decade committing new crimes and has now been sentenced to three more years in prison.

Jason Lee Ellison, 42, pleaded no contest in March to one felony count of criminal threat. The charge had originally been filed as an aggravated assault in which he allegedly threatened a man with a piece of lumber on Sept. 25, 2024, but the charge was reduced as part of a plea agreement, according to court records.

Ellison had entered a no contest plea less than one week before that crime to one felony count of attempted aggravated battery as part of a plea deal that reduced that charge from a high-level aggravated battery charge and dismissed a felony charge of possession of methamphetamine.

That conviction was for attempting to knee a man repeatedly in the ribs during an incident on Dec. 12, 2023. Ellison was granted probation in that case. His attorney, Gary West, argued that a contributing factor to his behavior was the use of drugs and that Ellison needed to be placed in drug treatment, not prison.

On Monday, Judge Amy Hanley revoked Ellison’s probation and ordered him to serve his underlying 32-month prison sentence in connection with the attempted aggravated battery and sentenced him to an additional 12 months in prison for the criminal threat charge.

She ordered the sentences to be served consecutively for a total of 44 months in prison, or 3.6 years. Ellison has already served about 15.6 months of that sentence in the Douglas County Jail.

Ellison has a long history of criminal activity dating back to when he was just 18. His earliest felony convictions in Douglas County include indecent liberties with a child between the ages of 14 and 16, aggravated battery, theft, burglary and forgery.

In 2006, Ellison was convicted at trial of aggravated sexual battery, and he was sentenced to 272 months in prison, or 22.6 years.

However, in 2011 Ellison was granted a new trial, as the Journal-World reported. The victim’s testimony had been called into question, and then-District Attorney Charles Branson declined to retry the case and dismissed the sexual battery charge.

Ellison told the Journal-World in October 2011 after his case was dismissed that he planned to reclaim his life and to stay out of trouble.

“I’ll own my own place, nice job, decent car, in a committed relationship,” said Ellison about his goals. “Be positive and stay out of trouble.”

But it wasn’t long before Ellison was back in front of a Douglas County Judge.

In 2012 he was charged with one count of felony burglary and one misdemeanor count each of attempted theft and criminal damage. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors, and the state dropped the felony charge as part of a plea agreement.

In 2013 he was convicted of felony theft and sentenced to 16 months in prison. In 2015 he was charged with two more counts of felony theft and pleaded guilty to one of the charges while the state dismissed the second as part of a plea agreement, and he was sentenced to another 16 months in prison.

Ellison was released on parole in February of 2017 and by October 2017 he was convicted of one count each of felony distribution of methamphetamine and felony aggravated endangering a child for exposing the child to the meth sale. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison. Two additional felony drug charges and one additional felony charge for encouraging a minor to commit a felony were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

In 2021, Ellison was charged with felony criminal threat and pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of reckless endangerment as part of a plea agreement in which he was sentenced to 69 days in jail, which he had already served after his arrest for the incident.

In 2022, Ellison was charged in two separate incidents with aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In both cases, he pleaded to reduced charges and was sentenced to another 16 months in prison.

According to Kansas Department of Corrections records, Ellison was released from prison in May 2023, just seven months before the incident for which he was most recently granted probation, and is now serving prison time.