Insufficient evidence that offenses of conviction were sexually motivated

Meryl Carver-Allmond won in State v. Rinke, No. 122,413 (Kan. July 30, 2021), reversing the district court's finding that Mr. Rinke's crime was sexually motivated requiring him to register as a sex offender in a Johnson County murder prosecution. After pleading guilty to felony murder and aggravated kidnapping, when sentencing Mr. Rinke, the district court also made findings that the offenses were sexually motivated. On appeal, Mr. Rinke argued that any sexual acts were unrelated to the offenses of conviction. Reviewing the record for substantial competent evidence, the KSC found the record was insufficient to support the district court's finding:

The plain language of K.S.A. 2020 Supp. 22-4902(c)(18) defeats the State's other argument that crimes following sex need be intertwined only with the sex act to be considered crimes performed for sexual gratification. The statutory language does not say that an unlisted nonsex crime need only be temporally or otherwise intertwined with an act that led to sexual gratification. Instead, it requires that Rinke committed felony murder and kidnapping "for the purpose of the defendant's sexual gratification." K.S.A. 2020 Supp. 22-4902(c)(18). No evidence suggests Rinke murdered and kidnapped J.P. for the purpose of a sexual reward, so he would reach the state of being sexually gratified, or because those crimes gave him a source of sexual satisfaction or pleasure.

As a result, the KSC reversed the order for sex offender registration.