Former Winfield Business owner Blake Porter has been sentenced to just under four years in prison as a result of a plea agreement reached with the Cowley County Attorney’s Office earlier this summer.
On Monday, Judge Nick St. Peter sentenced Porter to 43 months with the Kansas Dept. of Corrections. He was also ordered to pay $7,100 in restitution to the family of his victim, according to County Attorney Larry Schwartz.
Porter is currently in the Cowley County Jail awaiting transfer to a KDOC facility to serve his sentence.
Upon release, he would also be required to serve 36 months of post-release supervision.
With a 15 percent sentence reduction due to good behavior, Porter would spend around three years in prison, Schwartz estimates.
In June, the 56-year-old Porter pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated battery, a felony.
Porter
He entered what is referred to in legal parlance as an Alford Plea, which means he continues to maintain his innocence while pleading guilty for the purposes of reaching an agreement with prosecutors.
Porter had been accused of multiple sex crimes involving a female under the age of 14. Felony counts of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and indecent liberties with a child, were all dropped as part of the plea agreement.
The more severe charges, had Porter been convicted, could have left him imprisoned for the rest of his life.
“After reviewing the evidence, it became apparent that this agreement was best for all involved in this case,” Cowley County attorney Larry Schwartz said in June.
There was one alleged victim in the case and the incidents were said to have occurred while she was 13 and younger.
Porter was the long-time owner-operator of O’Kelley’s Sports Bar in Winfield. That business is no longer in operation.
He was arrested in the summer of 2019 and later released on bond.
