Man gets 10 years for knifing death of brother

Curtis Leon Small, convicted in the 2012 fatal stabbing of his brother, was sentenced Friday to 10 years and two months in prison, the sentence prosecution and defense attorneys had recommended to Shawnee County District Court Evelyn Wilson.

But Small, 51, won't be serving his sentence in Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility as requested by defense attorney Jeffrey Dazey.

Small, of Topeka, pleaded guilty May 31 in Shawnee County District Court to reckless involuntary manslaughter in the death of his brother, Scottie Taylor, 41, on July 11, 2012.

As part of the plea, assistant district attorney Veronica Dersch and Dazey recommended that Wilson sentence Small to 10 years and two months, the lowest term on the state sentencing grid for that manslaughter statute.

"I'm trying to take full responsibility for my actions," Small said before Wilson sentenced him.

In asking that Small be incarcerated at a mental health facility, Dazey noted an evaluation of Small showed he has a number of psychological problems. This places Small's conduct in the slaying in a less culpable light, and the psychological problems were factors in events when the victim was killed, Dazey said.

Wilson sentenced Small to the recommended term and denied Small's request to be housed at the Larned facility.

The sentence is to run consecutively to a 2007 conviction for a firearm possession and a 2006 conviction for aggravated assault to a law enforcement officer, the judge said.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show Small completed those sentences earlier this year.

The Larned facility houses the most severely and persistently mentally ill inmates within the state corrections department, along with a significant number of inmates with borderline personality disorders or a conduct disorder that makes them an unacceptable risk for housing in another facility, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections website. The facility has 150 beds.

In entering his plea May 31, Small told the judge Taylor had struck him in the face with a TV and tried to stab him at a mobile home at 1919 S.E. Adams. Small said he had been asleep when Taylor threw the TV. After his brother got a table knife, Small said he took it away from Taylor and stabbed him numerous times.

Small "clearly" was defending himself during the incident, Dazey argued.

Reckless involuntary manslaughter is defined in part as the unintentional killing of someone in self defense "during the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner," according to the Kansas statute.Small's criminal history includes convictions for five person felonies of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer in Topeka, as well as two aggravated assaults, unlawful flight from an officer and an armed robbery, all in Phoenix.

Small was in the news on March 18, 1995, when he was one of the first two men to escape from the Shawnee County Jail, 501 S.E. 8th. He was located and arrested four days later at a mobile home in the 700 block of S.E. 21st.

The other jail escapee, convicted triple-murderer Bobby Jackson, was arrested later on March 22, 1995, at the Highland Park Apartments in the 2300 block of S.E. Bellview.