
By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Holliday announced the first sentencing of a 'Career Criminal' following the establishment of a Career Criminal Prosecution Program within his office.
51-year-old Shane Adams is the first individual in Buchanan County to be charged under this program as a career criminal.
Adams was charged with with first-degree burglary, first-degree assault and possession of meth - all connected to an alleged crime in March 2019.
Adams was found guilty of both first-degree burglary and assault in April. He was then sentenced on June 14th to 20 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on each count to run concurrently to each other.
Adams had been previously convicted of distribution and possession of controlled substances, along with multiple misdemeanors. He was released recently from federal prison after serving time on a separate conviction for felony possession of a firearm.
The intent of the county's Career Criminal Prosecution Program, according to Holliday, is to seek the most severe punishment for the most dangerous criminals as authorized by law.
"It was our goal to select individuals who had been preying upon the community for some time as career criminals in Buchanan County," Holliday told The Post. "What we're looking for is maybe lesser crimes that could potentially slip through with a lesser punishment than maybe what is warranted with that person's record and their impact on the community."
Court documents show Adams unlawfully entered a residence for the purpose of stealing in March 2019. While inside, he assaulted the home owner, who was attempting to detain him. Adams had been under the influence of meth for days prior to the offense.
Adams was subsequently charged as a 'prior and persistent' offender due to his prior felony convictions for both burglary and forgery.
Missouri law provides for potential enhancement of punishment for 'prior and persistent' felony offenders, which is defined by those who have two or more prior felony convictions.
Holliday says that identifying these career criminals, however, goes a lot further than that. The prosecutor's office seeks counsel from the Sheriff's Office, the St. Joseph Police Department, along with members of the street crimes unit and drug strike force unit.
"It's a difficult program, because we know every person who we select, we know it's going to be a trial," Holliday said. "We know it could take some extra time in prosecuting the case. We want to make sure that not only we choose the individuals carefully who we target but also the case warrants this type of prosecution.
"We met and discussed a multitude of people we were currently prosecuting and trying to select this first individual as a trial run."
The Career Criminal Prosecution program was established in 2019, but COVID-19 prevented jury trials from happening for over a year, and the progress of criminal cases basically slowed.
"We had no jury trials for 13 months," said Holliday. "We've had three jury trials in the last eight weeks and the system is gradually picking up speed, but without a doubt it greatly affected the program."
Holliday indicated that his office will be targeting the next career criminal in the near future.
"We're going to have another meeting next week to select our second (career criminal)," he said. "Now that COVID is pretty much hopefully waning in the community and we will get back to going 100 percent in the court system again."
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