photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Jason Lee Stark

A judge on Thursday sentenced a man to more than two years in prison following his Dec. 11 plea deal to attempted aggravated battery.

Jason Lee Stark, 35, was facing three felony charges — attempted aggravated robbery, interference with law enforcement and criminal use of weapons — stemming from an April 7, 2025, incident in which he was accused of using a sawed-off shotgun to force a Lawrence man to turn over his car keys.

Stark pleaded guilty to one count of attempted aggravated battery, and his plea deal included an agreement by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office for a downward departure in sentencing by about six months, which Judge Amy Hanley accepted, ordering him to serve 26 months in prison.

Stark committed the Lawrence offense while on felony bond in Henry County, Missouri. In that case he is accused of abducting his two children and stealing a vehicle in February 2025. He was arrested in Florida and extradited back to Missouri.

Because he was on felony bond in that case at the time of his Douglas County offense, Kansas’ Special Rule 10 requires that his sentence in Douglas County run consecutively to whatever sentence he might be given in Missouri.

Special Rule 1 also applies to his case. This rule requires that a person felony committed with a firearm is a presumptive prison offense. However, Stark’s criminal history score alone made the most recent felony a presumptive prison offense under state sentencing guidelines.

In the Lawrence case, police sought the public’s help in locating Stark. They said they were called to a home near 10th and Illinois streets, where a man said someone approached him demanding his car keys and wallet. The man told police that when he attempted to run the other man hit him with what appeared to be a shotgun. Officers recovered a sawed-off shotgun and several unfired rounds of ammunition at the scene.

The victim in that case did not appear at Thursday’s sentencing. His mother was in the courtroom, but when given the opportunity to speak declined, saying “I don’t know if I could make it through.”

Prosecutor Eve Kemple told Hanley that the victim’s family was “comfortable” with the plea deal that had been reached.

Stark, reading from a letter to the court, spoke of his love for his two children, apologized for his actions “with all of my heart” and said he was ashamed of what he had done as he was “consumed by the mess that became my life.”

Hanley cited the state’s recommendation and its discussions with the victim’s family, in addition to other factors, in explaining her granting of the downward departure. To Stark she said, “You have to decide to do better.”

In addition to his prison term, Stark must register as a violent offender for 15 years. He will be given 282 days of credit for the time he has served in jail awaiting disposition of his case.

As part of his plea deal, the DA’s office also dropped another felony charge against Stark in which he was accused of taking $2,000 from a woman to repair windows at her home but failing to do the work, as the Journal-World reported. The woman won a civil suit in June 2025 by default, meaning Stark did not appear, for $2,168 in damages.