JOHN FREEMAN COLT OVERVIEW
- rhartman945
- Dec 19, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 20, 2021
Sources are linked at end of article.
JFC’s Background
JFC was born October 19, 1978. According to various news reports, he is 5’6”, 200 lbs., and has brown hair and blue eyes.
A Kansas Supreme Court Opinion from 2006, IN RE: the CARE AND TREATMENT OF John Colt reviews Colt’s “indefinite civil commitment as a sexually violent predator” which Colt is challenging. When the earlier determination was made that he was a predator, all evidence of his prior crimes including non-sex-based-crimes, was admitted. He objects to that move. The Kansas Supreme Court however, affirmed the previous determination that JFC is a violent sexual predator and should be committed indefinitely.
Colt’s original incarceration came from a 2001 conviction regarding:
1. Aggravated sexual battery
2. Aggravated burglary
3. Unlawful entry in neighbor’s apartment
4. Attempted rape
The details of this crime are described in a 2021 Utah Complaint:
"This charge was from an incident where COLT broke into a woman's apartment, sexually assaulted her while holding his hand over her mouth, preventing her from screaming. COLT was sentenced to five years in prison and was required to register as a sex offender for life."
Prior to the 2001 conviction, Colt had the following convictions:
1. Forgery and theft (1997)
2. Battery (1997)
3. Battery on a law enforcement officer (1997)
4. Theft of property valued at less than $500 (1997)
5. Disorderly conduct (two convictions, 1995)
6. Criminal damage (1995)
7. Battery (1994)
8. Unlawful deprivation of property (1994)
9. Unlawful deprivation of property (1993)
10. Theft and burglary (1993)
11. Battery and criminal damage (1991)
In addition, Colt also had numerous disciplinary reports on file from the Kansas Department of Corrections for time between the years 1998-2004 (IN RE). Further, Colt’s record showed he was “arrested for indecent liberties with a minor.” The theft and burglary charges included those involving motor vehicles. The forgeries included forged checks.
By the 2006 Supreme Court Opinion, Colt had been admitted to a State Security Hospital five times.
In the lower court proceedings, Rex Rosenberg, psychotherapist testified. After reviewing all of JFC’s abundant records, Rosenberg states that Colt had self-reported acts of animal cruelty, including killing a “family dog” by throwing rocks at it, and placing a cat in a microwave. Colt’s first admission to a mental institution was in 1992, at age 14, when he had been suicidal.
He had been jailed for auto theft. He was arrested at that time for automobile larceny and a high-speed chase. He had six auto theft charges with more to be prosecuted. (IN RE)
Further, the documentation in the lower court proceedings noted that “at age 12, he phoned the police and told them he was going to shoot his father” (IN RE).
The Supreme Court Opinion further documents that Colt’s behavioral problem began when he was 3 years old.
"Rosenburg further testified that Colt had acknowledged during interviews that thoughts of rape sexually stimulated him. Colt had said that, within 5 minutes of being placed in jail in the 2001 case, “he masturbated to fantasies of what could have happened.” Colt had also admitted to sodomizing a prostitute." (IN RE)
JFC was diagnosed with, among other things, paraphilia, alcohol dependence, and cannabis dependence. Wikipedia defines paraphilia as “intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals.”
Additionally, the Supreme Court Opinion reveals that Colt was diagnosed with “antisocial personality disorder, which covers persons whose behavior includes a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.” Thus, after Colt served his prison term, he was assigned to Larned State Hospital indefinitely. His assignment there was based as well on testimony that “his hostility towards women is escalating, and if he ever gets out he will go on a "Rape Spree" (Utah Complaint).
JFC’s Escape
His original escape, per the arrest warrant, was June 30, 2021, at approximately 7:00 am.
JFC was in the Larned State Hospital located at 1301 KS Hwy 264, Larned, Kansas, Pawnee County, as a patient in their “Sexual Predator Treatment Program.” On its webpage, the hospital describes itself:
"Laid out on a 78-acre campus, Larned State Hospital (LSH) is the largest psychiatric facility in the state serving the western two-thirds of Kansas with nearly 1,000 employees and the capacity to treat more than 450 patients daily, 24-hours a day, seven days a week."
The hospital’s video system recorded his escape. He had substantially changed his appearance by shaving his beard, cutting his hair, and dressing as a doctor. The women who helped him escape provided him with a fraudulent identity badge. The badge contained the name “C Jones.”
JFC was able to leave the hospital by convincing a new employee he was a new doctor, and asking for directions out of the hospital. It was several hours after his escape before the hospital realized he was missing.
After Colt left the hospital building, a driver picked him up and transported him to the City of Larned. He was dropped off at the Kwik Shop which he left around 11:00 am and began “walking northbound on Broadway” [“Dangerous’].
Apparently, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which oversees the Larned Hospital, was at least temporarily in the fugitive hunting business, as that office, early on, tried to assure the public that Colt would be “apprehended quickly and without incident” [“Dangerous”]. Additionally, the Pawnee County Sheriff’s office issued a “farmers alert,” and various Kansas Law Enforcement Agencies were notified.
Once Colt was dropped off at Kwik Shop, he hitchhiked and got a ride with a farmer. He retrieved his motorcycle and traveled west towards Colorado stopping in Scott City, Kansas where his activity was “captured on surveillance video” (Complaint). In Scott City, JFC asked someone for directions to Garden City, Kansas.
The complaint also provides some information about the text messages that were exchanged between one of the women who helped JFC, and himself, regarding his plans for after his escape. In his plans he says he will camp in the Rockies and wait for the attention to his case to die down before he heads to Mexico. To execute the escape plan, Holt texted his need for the fake “hospital ID, clothing, a tent, a solar cell phone charger, other camping equipment, and a motorcycle.”
During his time as a fugitive
The complaint outlines as well that JFC had another Facebook identity, “Jason Holt,” were he “posted numerous photos of his campsite, tent, motorcycle,” and himself posing with “a shotgun having a pistol grip and magazine fed rifle with a folding stock.”
On this Facebook page, Holt posted about living in Utah on August 21. One witness, “whose parents own the ‘Chuckwagon (General) Store and Deli’ . . . stated that Colt begin working in the store around August 12, 2021. The store’s address is 12 W. Main Street Torrey, Utah 84775.
Colt’s Apprehension
JFC was apprehended around 800 miles from where he fled, on September 27, 2021, in Sevier County, Utah. He was on a motorcycle.
At some point wanted flyers were distributed to law enforcement in Colorado and Utah. LE received multiple tips that JFC had a camping spot near Wayne County, Utah. Wayne County Sheriff staged a capture spot in a parking lot, and as they were readying that, Colt drove by on his motorcycle and the Sheriff pursued. After a brief high speed chase, Colt surrendered.
Utah Legal Proceedings Post 2021 Incarceration
On November 23, 2021, in Sevier County Court, Utah, the “Fugitive from Justice” charges were dismissed against John Freeman Colt.
After Colt was apprehended, a complaint was filed in the United States District Court, District of Utah, USA v John F. Colt. This complaint provided a few additional facts about Colt’s time in Utah. One of the charges brought forward is that Colt failed to register as a sex offender, as he is required to do whenever he changes addressed.
When in the Larned State Hopital, his address was listed as the hospital’s address, in the sex offender registry. The complaint alleges Colt was in Utah starting on the approximate date of August 12.
During the first hearing in Utah, after Colt’s capture, the judge explained to JFC his “options regarding the extradition warrant process” (Case Summary). JFC asked to confer with an attorney before deciding. JFC also discussed with the court his finances, and a public defender is appointed as JFC is determined indigent. The matter is continued to October 12, 2021. In the meantime, John remained in the Sevier County Jail.
During the next Utah hearing, October 12, Colt’s attorney states they will challenge “the legitimacy of the arrest.” Following the attorney’s presentation, the prosecution asks that a fugitive warrant be signed to hold Colt in jail until a governor’s warrant can be obtained.
The Utah court signs the fugitive warrant so that Colt remains jailed.
The first Utah extradition hearing took place on November 9, 2021. The prosecution states they have “reached out to the Attorney General in Kansas and they do plan to seek an order of extradition.” As of Nov. 9, 2021, there are no federal level bail warrants on Colt. Colt’s attorney says he will object, and the matter is set for another hearing in two weeks.
On November 23, 2021, in Utah, a second extradition hearing is held. Colt cannot be extradited to Kansas because of the federal hold on him. The Utah jail has received the federal hold documentation and thus asks that the original September 27 fugitive-from-justice-charge be dismissed without prejudice. Colt is then released into federal custody on Nov. 23, 2021.
In the case USA v. Colt, an order setting a hearing on trial is issued on November 24, 2021, and an “Initial Appearance” is scheduled for the 6th of December. In the same case, the INDICTMENT as to John Freeman Colt is issued on December 1, 2021.
SOURCES
June 30, 2021 Arrest Warrant
N THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF UTAH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Re: COLT, Case No. 2:21-mj-00747
COMPLAINT VIO. 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a), FAILURE TO REGISTER.
Colt Docket 12/19/2021
IN RE Kansas Supreme Court Opinion regarding Colt 2006
PETITION FOR ISSUANCE OF FUGITIVE WARRANT
Notice of Hearing 10/13/2021
Utah Docket Fall 2021
Notice of Hearing 11/15/2021
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