photo by: Chris Conde

Steven A. Drake, center, and his attorneys listen Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in Douglas County District Court as the verdict is read in Drake's trial in the fatal shooting of Bryce Holladay. Jurors found Drake guilty of voluntary manslaughter.

A Douglas County jury on Friday found a 25-year-old man guilty of voluntary manslaughter in a 2017 deadly shooting in south Lawrence.

The man, Steven A. Drake, was convicted of shooting Bryce Holladay, 26, on Sept. 19, 2017, at Drake’s duplex in the 2000 block of West 27th Terrace. Drake had been charged with first-degree murder, but the jury returned a verdict for the lesser crime of manslaughter after about a day and a half of deliberations.

While Drake had argued that he acted in self-defense in trying to eject Holladay from his home, the prosecution maintained that he acted with premeditation, as evidenced by messages he sent to other people announcing his intention to shoot Holladay.

“Senseless gun violence has no place in our community,” Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said in a news release Friday. “The Holladay family lost a beloved son, and we hope this verdict can give them some closure. But many people have been changed forever because of Mr. Drake’s actions — including the witnesses and their families and Mr. Drake himself.”

Holladay was a 2010 graduate of Eudora High School. He is survived by a daughter.

Drake is scheduled to be sentenced on March 30 after a pre-sentencing investigation, according to the DA’s office’s news release. The release said Drake’s prison sentence could range from about 4 1/2 years to more than 20 years.

Bryce Holladay

Drake’s trial in the 4 1/2-year-old case was delayed multiple times over the years for various reasons, including his changing attorneys and, most recently, his refusing to appear in court and rejecting a plea deal. It was also delayed, along with dozens of other trials, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Drake has had multiple run-ins with the criminal justice system.

In another case from 2017, Drake pleaded no contest in June 2019 to attempted aggravated battery in a case where he was accused of beating a 16-year-old boy in a fight, causing a serious head injury, on July 8, 2017. Drake was sentenced to 570 days in prison for that conviction.

Drake also faced a vehicular manslaughter charge, which is a misdemeanor, in connection with a deadly crash on Nov. 6, 2016, just north of Clinton Lake. Taylor B. Lister, 24, of Lecompton, was killed in the crash. That case was set to go to trial in August 2021, but was dismissed for insufficient evidence, according to court records.

photo by: Chris Conde

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez, foreground, watches as Steven A. Drake is put in handcuffs on Friday, Feb. 19, 2022, in Douglas County District Court after a jury convicted Drake of voluntary manslaughter