Douglas County judge denies probation, sentences jail contraband witness to prison

A Douglas County judge rejected Joshua Mayo’s bid for probation and sentenced him to 15 months in prison, even after Mayo told the court he had reported inmates trying to bring contraband into the Douglas County Jail.

Mayo said the contraband was K2, a synthetic drug that mimics THC, and testified that he had been cellmates with Caiden Clem and Temujin Jernigan. According to Mayo, Clem and Jernigan asked him to break apart a computer tablet so they could remove the battery and offered him K2 in exchange. Mayo said he refused, turned them in and was later moved to a Bourbon County jail for his own protection.

The defense argued that Mayo had put himself at risk by cooperating and deserved probation because he did the right thing. Prosecutor Cody Smith countered that Mayo’s decision was admirable but was also what any inmate should do, and that it did not justify probation without a formal agreement with the state. The judge agreed with the prosecution and said Mayo’s criminal history score and prior offenses weighed against leniency.

The ruling lands in the middle of a larger public safety issue inside the county jail. Clem has been charged in the Hawk shooting case, the Jan. 17 shooting at The Hawk bar, also known as Jayhawk Cafe, in Lawrence that killed 18-year-old Aidan Knowles and critically wounded 16-year-old Brady Clark. Before the jail contraband charge was filed on April 22, Clem had already been charged in that case with four counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, and he had been arrested on April 3 on suspicion of trafficking contraband in the jail.

Jernigan is separately charged in a Jan. 23 attempted murder case at the Hawks Pointe apartment complex. Mayo’s testimony tied contraband allegations to two separate violent cases already moving through Douglas County District Court, underscoring how jail security, witness cooperation and pending gun prosecutions can overlap inside the same facility.

Douglas County officials have described contraband-in-jail cases as a hazard for corrections staff, and the Douglas County Corrections Division says its work includes supervision, booking, intake, transport, reentry programming and other administrative functions at the county jail, located at the Douglas County Correctional Facility at 3601 E. 25th Street in Lawrence. The sentence sends a clear signal that cooperation may matter, but it does not erase a defendant’s record or guarantee probation.