Vernon Brooks

Vernon Brooks, a former Kansas University football player, pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated burglary and aggravated assault in connection with a May incident when four KU students were held at gunpoint.

Brooks, 23, entered the pleas Wednesday morning in Douglas County District Court as prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts of aggravated assault and one count of conspiracy.

The four students at an October preliminary hearing testified that two men wearing black ski masks and armed with what appeared to be handguns entered a unit at Tuckaway Apartments, 2600 W. Sixth St., at 1:30 a.m. May 14 and forced them to the ground.

Co-defendant Jamal Greene, 23, also faces the five charges in connection with the case.

Prosecutors and police allege Greene and Brooks entered the apartment because they thought they could steal drugs and money from a back bedroom. Brooks was dismissed from the KU football team last spring before the incident, and Greene was kicked off the team the day he was arrested in this case.

Greene, 23, of Kansas City, Kan., played football last fall for MidAmerica Nazarene University of Olathe. He faces a February hearing in the case.

District Judge Paula Martin is scheduled to sentence Brooks on March 3.

He remains free on bond.

Martin told Brooks he faces a sentence of anywhere from nearly three years to 11 years for aggravated burglary and 11 months to three years for aggravated assault, depending upon his criminal history.

If he has a minimal criminal history, his attorney could argue that Martin should give Brooks probation in the case. He also will have to register as a violent offender because a weapon was used.