photo by: Dylan Lysen/Lawrence Journal-World

Robert Brothers Jr. listens to Judge Amy Hanley in Douglas County District Court on Oct. 29, 2021, as she sentenced him to 12 months of probation in a case where he was accused of beating his girlfriend. A jury convicted Brothers of misdemeanor assault and interference with law enforcement, a low-level felony.

A Lawrence teen convicted of assault and interference with law enforcement officers in a case where he was accused of beating his girlfriend and then threatening to kill her with a knife and a stolen gun was sentenced to 12 months of probation on Friday.

Judge Amy Hanley said she was sentencing Robert Brothers Jr., 19, to two 12-month probation sentences for the separate convictions, which he was found guilty of during a trial in September.

However, Hanley said that the first sentence for the felony charge, which included an underlying sentence of seven months in prison, had already been served because Brothers had spent 225 days, roughly 7.5 months, in jail while he awaited trial on the charges. Hanley said she would also sentence Brothers to another 12 months of probation, with an underlying sentence of 30 days in the county jail, for the misdemeanor assault conviction. After crediting Brothers with his time spent in jail, she said he would have just 15 days remaining of the underlying sentence.

Despite only weeks remaining on the underlying sentence, Hanley said she felt the yearlong probation was still appropriate to make sure Brothers completed a domestic violence assessment and any treatment recommendations the assessment provides. But she said that the probation sentence could be cut short if he completed the assessment and restitution requirements before the 12 months are served.

“You’re very young, Mr. Brothers, and I do believe you will benefit from probation,” Hanley told Brothers while handing down the sentence.

The sentences for the two convictions follow the state sentencing guidelines. Brothers declined to comment on the proposed sentences before Hanley’s ruling.

Brothers was arrested on the charges in February and held in the Douglas County Jail on a $250,000 cash or surety bond, the Journal-World has reported. After he was convicted of lesser charges, Hanley amended the bond to a $1,500 own-recognizance bond, which he posted shortly thereafter.

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During a trial in September, Brothers had faced four charges: two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault and one count of interference with law enforcement, all of which are felonies. The jury chose to acquit Brothers of the high-level felony kidnapping charges. Jurors found him guilty of a lower-level assault charge — a misdemeanor — rather than the felony aggravated assault charge and guilty of a low-level felony of interference with a law enforcement officer.

The charges Brothers faced stemmed from allegations that he beat his then-girlfriend repeatedly during two incidents in February until she was able to seek shelter in a Lawrence bank, where the police were contacted. During one of the incidents, which occurred at Brothers’ home, he allegedly threatened to kill the woman because he believed she had cheated on him and had lied about it.

During closing arguments of the trial, Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden said that at one point during those incidents, Brothers pointed a loaded gun in the woman’s face and was aware he could be charged with a crime for what he was doing.

Seiden quoted part of the woman’s testimony about that incident, where she recalled what Brothers reportedly told her: “I don’t care; I’ll take that charge today. I’m going to kill you.”

Meanwhile, defense attorney Shaye Downing argued that the charges her client was facing did not fit what had occurred. While she did not dispute that violent incidents occurred between Brothers and the woman, she said the jury should find him not guilty of the presented charges.

photo by: Dylan Lysen/Lawrence Journal-World

Robert Brothers Jr., center, speaks to his attorney Shaye Downing after a jury found him not guilty of aggravated kidnapping in Douglas County District Court on Sept. 23, 2021. However, the jury did find him guilty of lesser charges: assault, a misdemeanor, and interference with law enforcement, a low-level felony.

She said that the kidnapping charges weren’t appropriate and questioned whether the woman was ever really restrained. She said that while photos of the woman taken after the incident showed injuries, they did not prove that the woman was unable to leave Brothers’ apartment.

She also said that between the two incidents, which happened about five days apart, the woman returned to Brothers’ apartment and repeatedly called him while standing outside the apartment. She said that suggested that the woman was not trying to get away from Brothers.

After Brothers and the woman went to the bank and the woman sought shelter inside, police apprehended Brothers and found a firearm in his possession. Downing argued that Brothers did not commit aggravated assault with that firearm. She did not directly address the woman’s testimony that Brothers had pointed a gun in her face. But she said the woman had testified that she did not know Brothers had the gun on him when they were driving to the bank.

“She wasn’t even aware he had a gun,” Downing said.

Downing also claimed that some of the woman’s accounts of violent acts committed against her weren’t consistent. She pointed to one incident that the woman testified about in court, in which she was allegedly hit on the head with a bottle of liquor. Downing said the woman did not originally tell police about this incident and that she didn’t mention that it had happened until she gave her testimony in court.

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Prior to the sentencing, Seiden read a letter from the woman’s mother to the court in which she said the justice system had failed her daughter and appeared to argue that Brothers should have been convicted of the more serious charges.

She suggested that arguments during the trial that her daughter’s account of the incidents was not consistent amounted to blaming the victim. She — seemingly sarcastically — advised other victims of domestic violence to take notes while they are being abused to make sure their accounts are always consistent.

Hanley said she took the mother’s comments into account while considering the sentence, acknowledging that she understood the mother was angry. But she said that the court alone could not issue a sentence that would solve the issue of domestic violence in the U.S. She said she believed ordering Brothers to complete the domestic violence assessment as part of his probation was one way the court could help the ongoing issue.

“This is appropriate to address both sides of the spectrum,” she said.