An Arkansas City pawn broker has had a felony obstruction conviction overturned by the Kansas Supreme Court.
The court’s decision reverses the last of four convictions against William Sheldon in connection with a firearm pawned at Sheldon’s Pawnshop in 2005. Sheldon also had been convicted of three counts of making a false information, but those convictions previously were overturned by a lower court.
That court had let a conviction on a sole count of obstruction stand but this most recent decision reverses that conviction.
Sheldon was busy at his shop when contacted by a reporter Tuesday but said he’d be willing to discuss his case later this week. He did say he had received word of the state supreme court opinion, which was handed down May 21.
"We’re free and clear now," he said.
The case stems from the pawning of a gun owned by Wayman Young and his wife, Linda Young. Ark City police investigated and later filed charges against Sheldon after finding irregularities on pawn tickets that Sheldon was required by law to turn over to police.
Sheldon was charged with obstructing the legal process based on conversations he had with police in which he was said to have provided false or misleading information. At the time the investigation started, police were trying to determine whether Wayman Young was legally permitted to possess a firearm.
Young was never charged buy Sheldon was tried and convicted for a making a false information and obstructing justice.
But the high court found the state had not met its burden of proof in the case. That was mostly because a police investigator acknowledged that an investigation into whether Wayman Young or Sheldon made a false information had not started at the time Sheldon spoke with police.
Since that investigation had not started, and it was that investigation that was key to the obstruction charge, the supreme court opined that there was no investigation to obstruct.
Jennifer Passiglia represented Sheldon. Jim Spring represented the state.
Some information from this story was taken from legal site, Leagle.com.
