Hays man faces more than 20 years in prison for sex crimes involving minor

By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

After pleading to three sex crimes involving a minor Thursday, a Hays man faces more than 20 years in prison.

Andrew Bayle Claude pleaded no contest to one count each of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and aggravated sexual battery in Ellis County District Court. He also agreed to an Alford plea of rape.

Under the plea agreement, Claude is expected to be sentenced to 155 months in prison for rape, 55 months for aggravated indecent liberties with a child and 31 months for aggravated sexual battery. All three sentences will run consecutively, for a total of 241 months in prison with the Department of Corrections.

In exchange for pleading the three counts, the state agreed to dismiss five additional charges.

According to court documents Claude had sexual contact with four teenage girls ages 16 and younger between November 2017 and March 2018.

In the initial criminal complaint, Claude was charged with raping a child under the age of 14, an off-grid person felony. According to Kansas law, a person convicted of the charge would be sentenced to 25 year to life in prison.

Under the Alford plea, Claude pleaded to rape, a level 1 person felony that does not carry the 25 year to life sentence.

An Alford plea means the defendant acknowledges that the charges do not exactly fit what happened, but it allows the court to impose the agreed-upon sentence. The defendant also acknowledges the state has enough evidence to prove he committed a crime.

As a result of the pleas Claude will also be subject to lifetime post release supervision and lifetime offender registration.

A sentencing hearing is expected to be held in March.