photo by: Screenshot

At top left, Douglas County District Court Chief Judge James McCabria pronounces the sentence of Tommy J. May, pictured at bottom right, during a sentencing hearing held via videoconference on Dec. 14, 2020. The others pictured, clockwise from top center, are Susan Benkelman with court services, Deputy District Attorney David Melton, attorney Carol Cline and Senior Assistant District Attorney Alice Walker. This screenshot was taken with permission from the judge.

A man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for his convictions in a 2018 double shooting in Lawrence that left a woman injured and a man paralyzed.

Tommy J. May, 61, was sentenced Monday to a total of 679 months, or 56 years and 7 months, in prison.

A jury found on Dec. 19, 2019, that May had shot a woman in the face, shot a man in the back, fled the scene of the apartment fourplex in the 700 block of West 25th Street, attempted to run over a Lawrence police sergeant who pursued him, caused criminal damage to property with his vehicle and attempted to flee on foot. All of the events transpired over the course of about an hour on the evening of July 2, 2018, and May was taken into custody near 23rd and Louisiana streets the same night.

Carol Cline, who was appointed to represent May after his jury trial, had asked the judge to depart from the standard sentence and instead consider a shorter duration — less than 50 years — that might give May some “hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.

May continued to proclaim his innocence during the sentencing. He had argued throughout the case that the two shootings were in self-defense and that the man and woman were attempting to steal from him.

Ultimately, Douglas County District Court Chief Judge James McCabria told May that everything about the evidence in the case indicated that May was not acting in self-defense. McCabria said whether or not the two victims were “star citizens” did not affect whether they deserved full protection of the law.

McCabria said that he had personal sympathy because the sentence would likely mean May would spend the rest of his life in prison; however, he did not find a compelling reason to depart from the standard sentence for the convictions.

Altogether, the jury convicted May of 10 felonies: attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer, possession of methamphetamine, criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing or attempting to elude police, interference with law enforcement and three counts of criminal damage to property.

McCabria sentenced May in two parts: He ordered that the two attempted murder counts run concurrently with each other and that the other eight counts run concurrently with one another but consecutively to the first two counts.

According to Kansas Department of Corrections records, May had prior convictions for aggravated robbery in a 1984 Sedgwick County case and for robbery in a 2004 Saline County case. Altogether, that meant he faced the most severe category of penalties under state law for the primary offense of attempted first-degree murder.

That count alone amounted to a sentence of 620 months, or almost 52 years. In the second part of the sentence, May’s sentence for the aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer was 59 months.

As part of his sentence, May must also pay $25,000 in restitution to the state’s crime victims compensation board for medical expenses for the woman who was shot, plus nearly $9,000 for property damaged in May’s attempt to flee police.

None of the victims in the case spoke during the sentencing hearing.

Deputy District Attorney David Melton and Senior Assistant District Attorney Alice Walker prosecuted the case. Gary Conwell, May’s attorney through his trial, withdrew from the case in February after May filed his own pro se motion asking for a new trial.

The judge denied that motion on Nov. 30. May has 14 days to file a notice of appeal if he wishes to appeal the conviction or sentence.

Cline declined to comment for this article.

May has remained in the custody of the Douglas County Jail since his arrest.