TOPEKA — An 18-year-old serving time for attempted sexual exploitation of a child should have a chance for a new hearing because he may not have been told about the Kansas Romeo & Juliet law, the Kansas Supreme Court ordered Friday.
Robert Cameron Grant was initially charged with 21 crimes, including 14 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, connected to photos and videos of his 16-year-old girlfriend, court records said.
Grant pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child.
But in appeals, Grant said he wasn’t told about the Kansas statute, informally called the Romeo & Juliet law, that would have changed his plea.
The law provides milder criminal penalties when two teenagers engage in voluntary sexual behaviors, provided the older teen is less than 19 years old and the age difference is less than four years, among other criteria, court records said.
Grant appealed to the Sedgwick District Court, the Kansas Court of Appeals and finally the Supreme Court before winning the chance to argue that he didn’t receive proper representation.
The Court of Appeals in September 2024, with one dissenting voice from Judge Kim Schroeder, ruled that even if the Romeo & Juliet law had been applied to Grant’s case, it would not have affected the outcome.
“If these defenses were not available to him, then his attorney could not have been incompetent for failing to advise him of them,” Judges Karen Arnold-Burger and David Bruns wrote.
They added, “To correct manifest injustice the court after sentence may set aside the judgment of conviction and permit the defendant to withdraw the plea.”
However, they did not find that a manifest injustice had been committed. On the other hand, Schroeder said that if Grant did not receive notification about all options, he should receive an evidentiary hearing.
“To be clear, I am not saying Grant received ineffective assistance of counsel; I am just saying he has sufficiently raised a fact question for the district court to resolve after an evidentiary hearing,” Schroeder said. “Thus, I would reverse and remand for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Grant’s counsel discussed these matters with Grant prior to entering his pleas.”
The Supreme Court agreed with Schroeder that the Romeo and Juliet statutes could apply and could have “potentially reduced or eliminated his felony liability.”
The case will return to district court for an evidentiary hearing to determine whether or not Grant was told about the Romeo and Juliet law.