photo by: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Chasmen Edward Foster

Two brothers testified Monday in Douglas County District Court about holding a man at gunpoint after the man had allegedly broken into their home and was preparing to steal a TV.

The defendant, Chasmen Edward Foster, 33, of Lawrence, is charged with one felony count of aggravated burglary and one felony count of burglary, according to charging documents. The charges are in connection with an incident on June 22.

Douglas County District Judge Blake Glover ordered Foster to stand trial after hearing testimony from two brothers who said they confronted the man in their home.

The first brother, Conor Devany, a University of Kansas student, said he had just returned from the semester break to his house in the 1000 block of Alabama Street and smelled cigarette smoke in his residence. He said he searched the house and while he was outside he saw a hand move in his basement window.

Conor said he went back inside and alerted his brother, Cameron Devany, a recent KU graduate, that there was someone in the basement.

Cameron testified that when his brother told him about an intruder they regrouped upstairs and went to the closed basement door in their kitchen.

“We went to our rooms and got our side arms and confronted him,” Cameron said.

Conor said that they told the man to come out of the basement and that they had a gun. The man exited the basement and asked them not to shoot and then squatted on the kitchen floor with his hands up until police arrived, he said.

Sgt. Drew Fennelly with the Lawrence Police Department testified that he was the first officer on the scene and when he initially entered the home and saw a person in the kitchen with a gun he first ordered the man to put the gun down but then asked the man to just move aside instead. Fennelly said he then saw Foster huddled in the corner of the kitchen and was able to place him under arrest without further incident.

Fennelly said that when he asked Foster what he was doing there, Foster said he was told by someone downtown that the house was empty but that maybe he could get some free clothes there. Fennelly said that Foster then told him that he also was planning to take a TV that Foster had allegedly removed from a wall and had stashed behind the refrigerator.

Another roommate in the house, Dalton Ercolano, later reported that he was missing a computer and several other items, but he said he had been out of town for about a month and could not say when those items went missing. he said he learned of the burglary only after he returned in August.

Foster’s defense attorney, Thomas Penland, said that the testimony presented at the hearing did not amount to a felony and that none of the reported missing items could be traced back to Foster.

Foster was booked into the Douglas County Jail the day of his arrest and was issued a $7,000 cash or surety bond and has been in custody ever since. In addition to his bond, Foster also has a “KDOC hold,” meaning that if he were to make bond in this case he would not be released without permission from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Records indicate that he is currently being supervised on parole out of another state.

According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Foster was convicted in Marion County, Ohio, of one count of felony robbery and sentenced to two years in prison in February of 2021, and he was eligible for parole in November of 2021.