photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Wesley James Tolbert

A Lawrence man was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court to 12 years in prison for a home burglary and robbery with an airsoft gun.

The man, Wesley James Tolbert, 26, pleaded guilty in June to one count of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary for his part in a home robbery in the 900 block of Arkansas Street on Oct. 13, 2021.

Tolbert entered the guilty plea as part of a deal in which the state agreed to a downward departure in his sentencing. Tolbert has multiple convictions in Douglas County, including felony conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and felony attempted aggravated burglary in 2015, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

Judge Blake Glover on Tuesday sentenced Tolbert to 216 months, or 18 years, on the robbery charge and 41 months, or about three and a half years, on the burglary charge, with those sentences to run concurrently. Glover then departed from that sentence and gave Tolbert a controlling sentence of 120 months, or 12 years.

At Tolbert’s plea hearing in June, Judge Kay Huff ruled that Tolbert, represented by Bradley Hook, would not have to register as a violent offender because he used an airsoft gun, which was deemed a dangerous weapon but not a deadly one.

Friends and family of Tolbert, including his children, some crying, filled the courtroom Tuesday. Tolbert, with tears in his eyes, thanked the court for the lower sentence.

“I apologize for my actions and to my family for putting them in this situation. I just want to get this taken care of so I can come home,” Tolbert told the court.

Tolbert’s co-defendant, Victor Gabriel Moreno, 19, was sentenced by Judge Stacey Donovan to 32 months in prison, or just over two and a half years, for two counts of felony robbery on Oct. 5. Moreno has no criminal history and did not use a gun during the robbery, Donovan said. Moreno and Tolbert were ordered to pay $5,942 each in restitution to the victims as part of their sentence.

photo by: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Victor Gabriel Moreno

The third man suspected in the robbery, Casey Lamont Williams Jr., 25, is still at large after posting a $100,000 surety bond in this case in October of 2021. Williams has multiple felony convictions in Douglas County and was scheduled to be sentenced for felony burglary in November of 2021, before absconding from his bond.

photo by: Kansas inmate registry

Casey L. Williams Jr. in 2020.

Tolbert was taken into custody after the sentencing. He had been free on a $100,000 own-recognizance bond since his arrest in April.