Man Sentenced To 29 Years For Swindling Baseball Coach, Others

Wednesday, October 10th 2007, 5:32 pm

By: News On 6

GUTHRIE, Okla. (AP) _ A Logan County judge on Wednesday handed down a 29-year prison sentence to a man convicted of swindling more than $900,000 from several prominent Guthrie residents and Wichita State University baseball coach Gene Stephenson.

Jack A. Logsdon, 61, was convicted on September 14 of 16 felony counts, and jurors recommended the 29-year prison sentence. Logsdon's attorney, Mack Martin, said his client plans to appeal.

Testimony during the trial indicated that from 1999 to 2004, Logsdon swindled longtime friends using scams involving cattle, land and property transactions. Jurors were told the cattle purportedly sold by Logsdon didn't exist and that the land and businesses both were heavily mortgaged and partially owned by other people.

The scam fell apart when investors asked Logsdon to sell, or to see what they had invested in.

``It just wasn't there. He was selling blue sky,'' Assistant Attorney General Charles Rogers said during Logsdon's trial, which was moved to Stillwater because of pretrial publicity. The sentencing hearing was held in Guthrie.

Stephenson has been Wichita State's coach for 30 years and guided the Shockers to a national championship in 1989. During the trial, Stephenson, who grew up in Guthrie, said Logsdon talked him into joint cattle and land transactions, saying ``he thought it would be fun.'' Stephenson said he knew nothing about cattle.

Stephenson said he was bilked out of at least $285,000.

Logsdon's other victims included former Guthrie Mayor Jon Gumerson, former Oklahoma State University baseball and basketball player Fred Moulder, former Guthrie High School basketball coach Charles Crooks and Robert Donaldson of Mustang, who was Logsdon's college roommate and the best man at his wedding.