A two-time ex-felon, who served jail time for more than seven years in Las Vegas, has been sentenced on Monday to 30 months of probation. He was not convicted in a child sex assault case though. The probation is only a part of a plea deal so that the sex charges against him will be dropped.
In a report by ABC News, the man has been identified as 49-year-old Warren Shannon McClinton. He appeared in court on Monday after he missed his sentencing Tuesday last week.
The supposed sentencing last week was the date set when McClinton pleaded an equivalent of no contest last September to a felony second-degree kidnapping charge. He said that he had trouble getting to Las Vegas from Chicago; thus, the delayed court appearance.
Due to the delay, Kron 4 reported that Prosecutor James Sweeting accused McClinton him of disrespecting the court. Clark County District Judge Eric Johnson said in a statement that the defendant was also not taking the proceedings of his case seriously.
If in any case McClinton violates any of the listed terms of his probation, which have not been detailed, he could face five to 15 years behind bars in Nevada state prison. Johnson told McClinton: "A probation officer is going to tell you what to do and you're going to have to do it and if you don't, the underlying sentence kicks in."
Before the sentencing, McClinton disputed that he thought they have agreed on a probation of 18 months instead of 30 and that he denied his knowledge of paying $3,400 in restitution of the medical care and treatment of a 14-year-old teenage girl who claimed he sexually assaulted her, Las Vegas Sun reported. The teenager is said to be a daughter of McClinton's friend. Despite his arguments, the sentence was still set to 30 months of probation.
Back in June, a jury has acquitted McClinton of one sex assault charge as the jury deadlocked on the other charges such as sexual assault, lewdness, and battery. If he was not acquitted, he could have gotten life imprisonment. However, the defense attorneys of McClinton said that DNA evidence showed the girl has had sex with three men but not their client. He did, however, admit that he entered a room and prevented the teen to leave and that he yelled at her.
McClinton has had brushes with the law in the past as he was sentenced back in 1989 in Virginia to five years in prison for theft and in 1996, he was jailed for six months in Chicago due to unlawful restraint of a person.
