Whitebird gets prison term for November 2015 incident

A Horton man convicted in June of aggravated battery in connection with a November 2015 stabbing in­cident in Holton received a 20-month prison sentence on the charge during a sentencing hearing Friday morning in Jackson County District Court.

Judge Norbert Marek gave Aus­tin Whitebird, 22, the maximum sentence on the aggravated battery charge, “based largely on the se­vere nature” of the Nov. 23, 2015, incident that left Oklahoma resident Travis Hawkins hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.

“You’re lucky this man’s not dead,” Marek said of Hawkins. “The victim was on a ventilator, and that’s about as close to death as you can get.”

Whitebird, who was arrested and taken into custody the day after the incident, was credited with about nine months for time already spent at the Jackson County Detention Center. Marek also told Whitebird during Friday’s hearing that he was eligible for “good time” credit.

The incident reportedly began with an argument between White­bird and Hawkins — who report­edly was in a relationship with Whitebird’s sister at the time — that witnesses said had es­calated into an incident of “push­ing, shov­ing and spitting,” it was noted dur­ing a preliminary hearing in Janu­ary.

Whitebird allegedly threw a bot­tle that hit Hawkins’ upper back, and Hawkins reportedly was bleeding from “holes” in his back shortly afterward. The witnesses then took Hawkins to Holton Community Hospital, and he was transferred from there to a Topeka hospital with injuries that were considered life-threatening at the time.

In a statement released following the sentencing hearing, Whitebird contended the incident was “a freak accident” that did not involve any stabbing on his part. None of the witnesses to the incident “ever stated (they saw) a knife or any weapon in hand at all,” he added.

Hawkins, who has since recov­ered from the incident, has returned to Oklahoma, Marek said, adding that he has been advised by the judge “not to return to Kansas.” Even if he did, the judge told Whitebird, “I’m sure that if you ran into each other on the street sober, the two of you probably would not come to blows.”

Marek also ordered Whitebird to serve his sentence consecutively to any time he may be facing in re­gard to violating parole on a Douglas County case stemming from an August 2012 incident re­sulting in a conviction on two counts of aggravated burglary. Whitebird was sentenced to 32 months in prison on that convic­tion, it was reported.