HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A man serving numerous life sentences for rape and kidnapping in Johnson and Reno counties will be back in a Reno County courtroom Friday.
Forty-five-year-old James Strader has filed a motion claiming numerous errors connected to his case in Reno County including failure to correct erroneous and false testimony, and imposing an illegal sentence, among other claims.
Strader was sentenced to life terms for aggrvated battery, rape and burglary in an April 2003 case in Johnson County and convictions of rape, kidnapping and aggravated burglary in Reno County in February of 2003. He won't be eligible for parole until July of 2080.
Reno County District Attorney Tom Stanton says he will argue that the motion has been filed well out of the allotted time. Friday's hearing is simply a status hearing to determine where the motion will go from here.
Strader was convicted in the kidnapping of a Hutchinson woman. That woman said she was sexually assaulted by a man who came to her door, said he had car trouble and asked to use the phone. She said he pulled a knife once he got inside.
The woman said she was driven to Kansas City before escaping early the next morning.
Strader was also convicted of raping a woman from Gardner, Kansas, and a 14-year-old girl in Missouri. He was arrested after he was stopped by police in Richfield, Utah.