One of three men charged in botched 2012 home invasion found guilty

Alexander Christopher Eftekhar, 23, Lawrence, was found guilty in Douglas County District Court on Tuesday of amended charges of attempted robbery and attempted aggravated battery stemming from a December 2012 botched home invasion.

Eftekhar pleaded no contest to the charges, and Douglas County District Court Judge Peggy C. Kittel found him guilty and scheduled a March sentencing.

Eftekhar had been charged alongside Connor McKenzie Mayhan and Andrew Michael Johns for a botched home invasion in the 1200 block of New Jersey Street in December 2012.

Mayhan testified last July as part of a plea agreement with Douglas County prosecutors that the robbery plan was hatched by Eftekhar and Johns would serve as a getaway driver. Mayhan said Eftekhar believed a man living in a house on New Jersey Street would have up to $30,000 in cash from selling marijuana and wanted to break in and rob him at gunpoint.

After Mayhan and Eftekhar tried and failed to break down the man’s door, Mayhan was accidentally shot in the arm. The men initially called police and reported that they had been assaulted by armed intruders, but later a Lawrence Police Department investigator tricked Mayhan into admitting to making up the story after telling him Eftekhar had already been cooperating with police, which was untrue.

Free on a $15,000 bond, Mayhan is next set to appear in court for a plea hearing on Feb. 21. Johns, meanwhile, is scheduled to be arraigned on April 4 and is free on a $3,500 bond.

Eftekhar is free on a $35,000 bond and will return to court to be sentenced on March 28.