photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Steven Carl Drake II

Updated at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 30, 2026

A repeat felon who was granted probation just last month after his attorney assured a judge that he was a “new man” was arrested Monday afternoon on suspicion of arson and two other felonies.

The May sentence of probation was extraordinary in that the sentencing judge said she couldn’t recall ever granting probation in such a case before.

Steven Carl Drake, 51, of Lawrence, was arrested just after 3 p.m. Monday at 1768 East 1600 Road on suspicion of arson, attempted aggravated arson and criminal use of explosives. On Tuesday, he was charged with all three crimes.

According to Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman Laura McCabe, a police detective and a Douglas County Sheriff’s deputy arrested Drake in connection with an incident that happened around 2 p.m. Saturday at a home near 10th Street and Kasold Drive “because an explosive device was thrown into someone’s yard.”

No one was hurt, McCabe said, but the device created “a large divot in the lawn.” Detectives were able to link Drake to the crime and made the arrest.

“Detectives believe it was a targeted act,” McCabe said.

In May, Drake was sentenced for attempted aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, felony fleeing and eluding and misdemeanor criminal damage. As the Journal-World has reported, those convictions were the result of a deal with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office in which Drake pleaded no contest to the two felonies and one misdemeanor in exchange for the state dropping all the other charges in a 13-count complaint of nine felony charges, including methamphetamine possession, and four misdemeanors.

Senior Judge Nancy Parrish suspended Drake’s sentence for those crimes to probation even though he had seven person felonies on his record, numerous nonperson felonies and the worst possible criminal history score for purposes of the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines. Parrish noted that she couldn’t “ever remember” granting such a sentencing departure to someone with that kind of record, but she nevertheless felt that Drake was on a “good path” and that substantial and compelling reasons existed for the sentencing departure.

Drake’s lawyer, Angela Keck, patted Drake’s back at the sentencing while telling Parrish, “This is the new Steve Drake.”

The state, meanwhile, represented by Megan Ahsens, sought a five-year sentence for Drake, telling Parrish that he had been in and out of jail/prison much of his adult life and that many of his crimes were committed while he was on probation for other crimes. She added that he had shown himself “time and time again” to be a public safety risk. Ahsens also noted that she was not the prosecutor who had crafted the plea deal.

While Parrish granted probation to Drake, she told him that he had a serious underlying sentence “hanging over your head” should he violate probation — namely 46 months for the attempted aggravated assault, 11 months for the flee and elude felony, to run consecutively, and six months in jail for the criminal damage misdemeanor. She also ordered him to pay $1,250 in restitution but waived all other costs and fees, even though Drake claimed to be working “night and day” at two jobs.

Drake made his first appearance in the new case via video from the jail on Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutor Eve Kemple requested that he be held on a cash/surety bond of $1 million and that he have no contact with the alleged victim both as a condition of bond and as a general court order.

In support of her request, she told Judge Blake Glover that Drake, with nine person felonies as of his May convictions, was a public safety risk and a flight risk, having chalked up 10 failures to appear in court and multiple flee-and-elude convictions. She noted that his criminal history score is “A,” the worst possible, and that the new alleged crimes occurred while he was on felony probation — a probation that the state had opposed.

Drake argued that Glover should give him an own-recognizance bond, using an expletive to describe the charges against him and dismissing the incident as “a firework in a yard.”

“These are ridiculous charges,” he said, before using a vulgar phrase to suggest that police and prosecutors were lusting to charge him with something.

Glover granted the state’s request on bond and no-contact orders and appointed Keck to again represent Drake, citing her familiarity with Drake’s cases.

The charges Drake was sentenced for in May stem from three separate car chases in February 2022, January 2024 and August 2024.

The 2022 incident was an early-morning car chase on Feb. 3, when Drake fled from police through residential areas around downtown Lawrence. The chase ended when Drake reportedly crashed into multiple cars and a shed.

The Jan. 15, 2024, incident involved Drake fleeing from sheriff’s deputies and ultimately ramming into a patrol car.

In the Aug. 26, 2024, incident, Drake fled from a deputy who was attempting to stop him in connection with a domestic battery incident. Drake reportedly caused a collision with the deputy’s vehicle, then jumped the median onto the levee trail in North Lawrence before driving through a yard and a field and destroying a fire hydrant.

Aside from the cases resolved by the most recent plea deal, Drake has felony convictions in Douglas County for flee and elude, endangering a child and theft. In Jefferson County, he has felony convictions for forgery, obstruction and aggravated interference of parental custody, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. In 2023 he was acquitted in Douglas County District Court of an attempted murder charge, as the Journal-World reported.