State v. Dobbs

CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 13, 2026
Docket125929
StatusUnpublished

This text of State v. Dobbs (State v. Dobbs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dobbs, (kanctapp 2026).

Opinion

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION

Nos. 125,929 125,930

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS

STATE OF KANSAS, Appellee,

v.

DEANGELO AVERY DOBBS, Appellant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Appeal from Atchison District Court; JOHN J. BRYANT, judge. Submitted without oral argument. Opinion filed February 13, 2026. Affirmed.

Jennifer Roth, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellant.

Sherri L. Becker, county attorney, and Kris W. Kobach, attorney general, for appellee.

Before ISHERWOOD, P.J., CLINE and COBLE, JJ.

PER CURIAM: DeAngelo Avery Dobbs was convicted of felony fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer following a bench trial. Dobbs appeals, arguing the evidence was insufficient to support his felony level conviction and only supported the misdemeanor crime of fleeing or eluding a police officer. Viewing the evidence as the legal standards require, we find the evidence sufficient to support his conviction and affirm.

1 PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Two cases were consolidated on appeal, case No. 17 CR 61 (appellate case No. 125,929) and case No. 19 CR 241 (appellate case No. 125,930). A brief discussion of the separate cases is necessary before addressing the merits of this appeal.

Consolidation and Waiver

In the 2017 case, Dobbs pleaded guilty to one count of criminal possession of a firearm by a felon. The district court sentenced him to 18 months of probation with an underlying prison term of 18 months. In December 2022, the district court revoked Dobbs' probation and ordered him to serve the underlying prison term. Dobbs appealed the revocation of his probation.

In the 2019 case, Dobbs was convicted of felony fleeing or eluding based upon the facts recited in detail below. Following this conviction, he filed an appeal. After difficulties obtaining transcripts common to both cases on appeal, Dobbs sought to consolidate the two appellate cases, arguing that although the two cases did not share common issues, they shared transcripts. We granted the consolidation of the two cases and proceeded under case No. 125,929.

On review of the briefs in the consolidated appeals, we note that Dobbs raises no claim regarding his probation revocation in the 2017 case, as he satisfied his sentence and postrelease supervision in July 2024. Because the probation revocation appeal was neither briefed nor argued, it is considered waived or abandoned. State v. Davis, 313 Kan. 244, 248, 485 P.3d 174 (2021). We proceed to examine only Dobbs' claim regarding his felony fleeing and eluding conviction, beginning with the circumstances forming the basis of that case.

2 Dobbs Evades Law Enforcement

The events leading to Dobbs' pertinent conviction were established during the trial on his charge of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer and engaging in reckless driving as defined by K.S.A. 8-1566, in violation of K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 8-1568(b)(l)(C), (c)(2), a severity level 9, person felony. Dobbs waived his right to a jury trial, and the case proceeded to a bench trial. During the bench trial, the State presented evidence through its sole witness, Atchison County Detective James Stuart.

On October 24, 2018, Detective Stuart was an Atchison County Sheriff's Deputy on duty, dressed in his uniform, driving a marked patrol vehicle. At approximately 11:30 a.m. on that mostly sunny day, while exiting a local Casey's convenience store parking lot in his patrol vehicle, he saw a car waiting to enter the same parking lot. As the car turned into the store parking lot, Detective Stuart recognized Dobbs as the driver, as he had known Dobbs since 2016 and could recognize him by face and voice. Dobbs had no passengers.

At that point, Detective Stuart began to turn his patrol vehicle around and called Atchison County communication center to confirm his belief that Dobbs had an active warrant. Meanwhile, Dobbs turned into the alley adjacent to Casey's while Detective Stuart was making a U-turn. Detective Stuart heard Dobbs' car "drop down a gear, the engine accelerate," and "[g]ravel kind of was thrown a little bit." As Dobbs' car accelerated into the alley, Detective Stuart turned on his lights and advised dispatch that the vehicle was taking off. He began pursuing the eastbound vehicle and activated his siren about 50 yards into the pursuit.

Although Detective Stuart admitted that he did not use a radar gun to establish Dobbs' speed, he estimated that Dobbs was traveling "at least 60 miles an hour" through the alley. Detective Stuart believed the speed limit in the alley was 30 miles an hour. He

3 acknowledged that although there was a duty to yield to oncoming traffic, the alley had no stop or yield signs.

Detective Stuart continued to pursue Dobbs down the alley, first crossing 16th Street, then 15th and 14th. At 16th Street, the officer did not recall there being traffic. He testified that Dobbs did not stop when he crossed 16th or 15th Streets. At this point, Detective Stuart testified he was still fairly close to Dobbs' vehicle, but Dobbs gained distance at both the intersections at 16th and 15th streets due to the officer slowing down at each intersection. The officer testified he initially maintained pace with Dobbs and only fell behind when slowing "significantly," at intersections with retaining walls—16th and 14th Streets. Detective Stuart noted that when crossing the alley at the 16th street intersection, it has a concrete retaining wall to the north "that kind of limits your visibility." Also, at 14th Street, there are concrete retaining walls on both the north and south sides of the alley, which "significantly reduces your visibility, so [Stuart] would have slowed down significantly there as well."

Detective Stuart testified about the terrain in the alleys, describing the roadway as "[l]ightly graveled," with "lots of potholes," some of them "substantial." The officer said the alleys were narrower than a standard street but wide enough to allow traffic to move in both directions. He believed all the alleys had inclines. According to Detective Stuart, the alley immediately behind the store inclines in spots. Likewise, between 15th and 14th Streets, he believed the alley had a downward incline, but he could not recall the terrain between 15th and 16th Streets.

When Detective Stuart crossed 15th Street, he recalled seeing a single car stopped in the street. He was unsure if the car stopped because of his lights and sirens or if the car had already been stopped to avoid a collision with Dobbs, who was not stopping at intersections. He did not recall how close the car was to the intersection of the alley and 15th Street when he approached. Once Dobbs crossed 15th Street, Detective Stuart lost

4 sight of him. Detective Stuart confirmed that he did not know what happened at the intersection of the alley and 14th Street, as Dobbs' car was out of his view. As Detective Stuart searched the area for Dobbs, he questioned two pedestrians but ultimately completely lost Dobbs. A short time later, the Atchison Police Department notified Detective Stuart that they located the abandoned, running car in the back of a residence, unoccupied. No video evidence existed, as the officer had no dash camera in his car and did not turn on his body camera.

After Detective Stuart testified, the State rested, and the defense called Tori Downing to testify.

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State v. Dobbs, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dobbs-kanctapp-2026.