Michael L. Sudduth was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in prison for the spring 2003 robbery of a south Iowa Street bath-products store.

The sentencing would have come sooner, prosecutors said, but was delayed when the Topeka man, out on bond, committed two additional robberies in Olathe, for which he was convicted in May.

Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin sentenced Sudduth, 50, to 162 months for two counts of robbery and six months for trying to elude a police officer.

According to testimony during his trial, Sudduth entered Bath & Body Works, 3102 Iowa, about closing time April 25, 2003, through a rear entrance. He demanded money from two clerks.

Defense attorney Shelley Bock argued for a lesser sentence, in part because Sudduth admitted to robbing the store. But instead of letting him plead to a robbery charge, prosecutors pressed ahead with the more serious charge of aggravated robbery, which involves use or threat of a dangerous weapon, plus two counts of kidnapping.

Jurors ultimately acquitted Sudduth of the aggravated robbery and kidnapping charges, meaning he was convicted at trial of what he was willing to admit.

Bock alleged the trial was a waste.

“All of that could have been avoided … had the state accepted Mr. Sudduth’s willingness to plead in advance,” Bock said.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Brad Burke argued that the state had an obligation to the people of the county and the state to pursue the most serious charges they thought they could prove.

Martin said she agreed prosecutors were simply meeting their obligation.