photo by: Kansas Department of Corrections

Sean Steven Craig

A repeat felon sighed with relief and raised his shackled hands in prayerful gratitude Tuesday as a Douglas County judge sentenced him to probation, despite his having the worst criminal history score possible under the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines.

Judge Stacey Donovan told defendant Sean Steven Craig, “You will be released today,” after she handed down his sentence for felony criminal threat. She told Craig that in prison he would not be able to receive the treatment that he needs.

Craig, 38, was originally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he was accused of accosting two individuals — a man and a child — with a handgun just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2025.

The man told Lawrence police that he and his 11-year-old nephew were approaching a relative’s home and noticed a stranger looking at items on the side of the house. As the man approached the stranger, the stranger — later identified as Craig — allegedly pulled a pistol from his satchel and threatened the man and child. The man told police that he immediately retreated in fear for himself and his nephew.

Although Craig was initially charged with aggravated assault with a handgun, he entered a plea deal with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office to the lesser crime of criminal threat. The DA’s Office also specifically agreed as part of that deal that it would not ask the court “to make a firearm finding or a deadly weapons finding.”

A firearm finding has significance because under Kansas’ Special Rule 1 a prison sentence is presumed if the defendant used a firearm while committing a person felony. However, it is not uncommon for negotiating parties to agree to a legal fiction that no gun was used in order to evade Special Rule 1.

The Journal-World on Tuesday asked District Attorney Dakota Loomis whether this type of legal fiction was good for a society that’s concerned about gun violence.

Last summer, for example, a man was convicted of aggravated battery in a shooting that severely injured a 23-year-old, but the prosecutor, in an effort to evade Special Rule 1 as part of the plea deal, carefully avoided saying the word “gun”; instead, he called the thing that fired the shot “an inherently dangerous item or object.”

In another recent case, a prosecutor, cutting a plea deal with a repeat felon who was accused of trying to rob a woman at gunpoint at a liquor store, agreed that there would be “no finding” that a firearm was used.

Regarding Craig, Loomis responded that, despite the state’s original charge of a gun crime and the state’s request that the court make no “firearm finding,” this case involved no legal fiction.

“Our office reviews each case individually and proceeds based upon what we can prove in Court beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “In this case, there was no legal fiction as the evidence did not show beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant possessed a firearm at the time of the crime. No firearm was recovered from the defendant and no witness could provide a description of the firearm due to darkness. Given these circumstances and with the input of the victim, our office believed felony criminal threat was the appropriate crime of conviction.”

Being released from jail Tuesday was not the only apparent surprise for Craig. He had been expecting his criminal history score to come back as a “G,” with “I” being the best and “A” being the worst.

His score came back as an “A.”

This apparently surprised both defense attorney Hatem Chahine and prosecutor Cody Smith, who had conducted plea negotiations assuming a “G” score.

Craig told Donovan that he was “definitely surprised and overwhelmed by the results” of the pre-sentence investigation, which had assigned the score. Chahine downplayed the score as a series of misdemeanors over two decades that had converted to felonies.

When Smith discovered the severity of the criminal history score, he asked Donovan to sentence Craig to 16 months in prison instead of giving him probation, but he also said, “I really think Mr. Craig needs some mental health help,” alluding to treatment that would be available in the community but not in prison.

Donovan ultimately sentenced Craig, who has amassed about six months of jail credit, to 16 months in prison, which she then suspended to 12 months of probation with community corrections. She cited some progress Craig had made in mental health and substance-abuse treatment while awaiting sentencing and said it was important that he continue on that course. She said that such treatment would be available in a sober house and a mental health facility but not in prison.

Over the weekend, Chahine filed a request for Donovan to seal his motion for departure from a prison term “due to content.” He said that the motion contained a “substance abuse intake that contains substance abuse diagnosis, treatment, and mental health recommendations.” He said that prosecutor Smith did not object to the information being kept from the public.

Donovan began the hearing about 20 minutes late while, according to her administrative assistant, she reviewed the motion, but she did not mention a seal order during the hearing. The motion for departure was not publicly viewable as of Tuesday afternoon.

The address for Craig on the Douglas County Jail booking log is the Lawrence Community Shelter. Craig has felony convictions in Johnson County for drug possession in 2017 and 2012 and aggravated assault in 2016, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. He was also accused of vandalizing the city-supported homeless camp in North Lawrence three years ago and has a string of run-ins with the law going back nearly 25 years.