Cody Scott Kukuk, who was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2011, was sentenced Tuesday to 3.5 years in prison for his part in a violent home-invasion robbery.

In May, Kukuk, 22, pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated robbery, robbery and aggravated assault.

Kukuk and four codefendants were accused last year of entering a Lawrence apartment, battering its residents and stealing between $1,000 to $1,500 in cash and marijuana, according to the Douglas County district attorney’s office.

Cody Kukuk

Kukuk’s attorney had asked for 40 months, but Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin said she could not make it less than what codefendant Driskell Alan Johnson, 20, received, which was 42 months.

That’s because Martin said Johnson may have been the most violent of the five but Kukuk organized the invasion.

“You were the one who texted your friends to come,” Martin said. “You were the one who texted to get the gun that Mr. Johnson used. You gathered your friends together and, quite frankly, without you this wouldn’t have happened.”

Martin said that following prison Kukuk would have to be on parole for 36 months. Because a gun was used in the commission of a crime, Kukuk also would have to register with the local sheriff’s office for 15 years.

Martin denied a request by Kukuk to remain free for a few more days and remanded him to the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence immediately.

The judge asked Kukuk if he had been using drugs when he committed the crime, and he said he was using several, including cocaine.

When Martin left the courtroom for a few minutes, an emotional scene unfolded; a weeping Kukuk hugged his parents and grandparents, who also were crying.

Kukuk, a left-handed pitcher, was in his senior year at Lawrence’s Free State High School when he signed a letter of intent to play baseball with Kansas University. But after graduating in 2011, he decided to bypass college and go with the Boston Red Sox, who paid him an $800,000 signing bonus.

He played three seasons for the Red Sox minor league teams.

On Nov. 8, Kukuk was with the four codefendants when they decided to rob “these people who sold weed,” codefendant Zachary John Pence, 21, testified in a preliminary hearing in December.

Pence said Kukuk showed him a backward hoodie he planned to wear over his head that had eye-hole cutouts. Kukuk also had a wooden table leg to use as a weapon.

When the men arrived at the apartment where several people were sleeping, Kukuk had the table leg, and Johnson had the gun. Pence said he broke down the door.

Kukuk and Johnson went upstairs and pulled a “naked kid” out of the bed, and Johnson allegedly pistol-whipped him. Eventually they broke into the master bedroom where Christopher Adams, a Kansas University senior, was asleep.

Adams testified at the preliminary hearing that two masked men began striking him with a wooden table leg and pointing a gun to his head. Adams told the men where his safe was. It also held four ounces of marijuana, according to testimony.

Court records said the money, drugs, an Xbox 360 and two cellphones were stolen.

One of the victims recognized Pence from high school and told police, who were able to arrest him the same day. As part of his plea negotiations, Pence admitted to his part in the crime and agreed to testify for the prosecution.

Kukuk and codefendant Gabriel Alexander Patterson, 21, fled to Long Beach, Calif., and were arrested about 10 days later by the local police.

Four of the five defendants, including Yusef Muhammad Kindell, 20, have pleaded no contest or guilty.

A jury found Patterson guilty in May of aggravated burglary and three counts of aggravated robbery.

On May 28, Johnson was the first of the codefendants to be sentenced when he received 3.5 years in prison.