photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Benson Jerome Edwards is pictured at his sentencing hearing in Douglas County District Court on Dec. 21, 2022. Edwards was sentenced to more than seven years in connection with a shooting at Holcom Park in 2019.

Updated at 5:33 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022

A man was sentenced Wednesday to more than seven years in prison in connection with a 2019 robbery and double shooting at Lawrence’s Holcom Park that left two teens seriously wounded.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Benson Jerome Edwards, who will turn 21 Thursday, to seven years and five months in prison, as recommended in his plea agreement, and Edwards was also credited with about 1 1/2 years of time served. According to court records, Edwards pleaded guilty to one felony count of aggravated robbery with a handgun, and the state agreed to drop an additional count of aggravated robbery, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possession of a firearm.

Edwards was charged in connection with the double shooting of brothers Ulises and Daniel Rojo, who were 18 and 16 at the time, at Holcom Park, located at 27th Street and Lawrence Avenue in southwest Lawrence, on March 29, 2019.

Daniel and Ulises Rojo attended the sentencing hearing, along with friends and relatives of theirs and of Edwards.

Ulises Rojo said that while robbery is what Edwards has been convicted of, he thinks that Edwards and co-defendant Sahavione Keshaun Caraway were more interested in killing him and his brother. Otherwise, he asked, why would they have been “so stupid to shoot them” in broad daylight.

“I know you can only get charged with murder if you kill someone, but I did die that day. My heart stopped twice during surgery,” Ulises told the court.

He said that doctors didn’t think he would survive the trip from Lawrence to the University of Kansas hospital in Kansas City, Kansas.

As the Journal-World previously reported, Ulises Rojo was shot in the heart and lung and Daniel Rojo was shot in the arm and leg. Both needed surgery, and Daniel Rojo had a plate installed to hold his arm together. He also needed a skin graft and was in a wheelchair for three months after surgery on his kneecap.

The Rojos’ mother, Katrina McClure, wrote a letter to the court that Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum read aloud during the hearing. The letter said that McClure struggled to find words to describe her feelings when two of her children were in surgery with gunshot wounds. She said everything seemed to move in slow motion, especially when doctors informed her that her son’s heart had stopped more than once during surgery.

The letter said that as Daniel has tried to heal physically after multiple surgeries she has tried to heal emotionally.

“My personal mantra has been not to let the violence of that day take any more from us,” McClure wrote.

She told the Journal-World after the hearing that her family was just ready to move on.

Edwards and Caraway, who is now 20, were both 17 at the time of the incident but were slated to be tried as adults. Charging documents alleged that Edwards and Caraway met with the Rojo brothers at the park to purchase marijuana vape cartridges and that Caraway pulled out a rifle during the transaction and attempted to rob them.

In the ruling on whether the defendants should be tried as adults, now-retired Judge Peggy Kittel said Daniel Rojo, the 16-year-old, testified that he and his brother were in a pickup truck and talking to Edwards during the transaction. Rojo testified that Edwards turned and nodded to Caraway, who was seated in a nearby car, and that Caraway then got out of the car and approached the brothers with a rifle. The charging document in his case identified it as a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 — an assault-style rifle.

Caraway and Edwards then proceeded to rob the brothers, the ruling said, and when the brothers realized what was happening, Ulises Rojo, the 18-year-old, put the truck in reverse to get away. The ruling said that Caraway then shot the driver, who went unconscious, and that the truck rolled backward through the parking lot until it hit a sign.

The ruling said Caraway and Edwards then got back in their car and drove up to the truck, and Caraway got out again and told the brothers, “Give me (expletive) everything or I’ll kill you.” Officers recovered nine spent bullet casings from the scene, but it was not clear from the ruling whether all the casings came from the same weapon.

Police apprehended Caraway and Edwards as they were heading out of Lawrence and onto Interstate 70 shortly after the incident.

In September 2021, Caraway was convicted of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in a plea deal, and he was sentenced the next month by Judge Sally Pokorny to nearly 13 years in prison for the attempted murder charge and almost five years for the robbery charge. Pokorny ordered those sentences to run concurrently.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Benson Jerome Edwards, right, was taken into custody on Dec. 21, 2022, after he was sentenced to more than seven years in connection with a shooting at Holcom Park in 2019.

Just before he was sentenced, Edwards addressed the Rojo family and offered an apology as his voice cracked as he held back tears.

“I cannot begin to fathom the mental, physical and emotional struggles you have to go through. I hope someday you can forgive me,” Edwards said.

Edwards’ defense attorney, Tom Bath, said that it was only by the grace of God that the Rojo brothers were alive. He asked Pokorny to follow the plea agreement and said that the agreement had been made with input from the Rojo family.

Pokorny said she would abide by the recommendation in the plea agreement but that no amount of prison could repair the pain and suffering that the Rojo family had endured as well as Edwards’ family.

“This is a terrible, terrible situation. Terrible because it has torn apart the Rojo family by having two children nearly die. This trauma will affect this family forever. This has also torn your (Edwards’) family apart. They will now have to deal with a son who is in prison, and that will tear their hearts apart,” Pokorny said.

Edwards has an additional person-felony on his juvenile record that he received before the shooting that increased his possible prison sentence range on the Kansas sentencing guidelines, Pokorny said. Court records indicate that Edwards was convicted of one count of felony aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and one count of misdemeanor criminal damage in 2018.

Edwards, who had been on house arrest, was taken to the Douglas County Jail after Wednesday’s sentencing.