photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Department of Corrections

Tristen Lemont Hollins is pictured with the city-run support site for people experiencing homelessness. Hollins is charged with attempted murder in connection with the stabbing of Bryan "Queen" Griffin.

A Douglas County judge has sealed the arrest affidavit in the case of a homeless man who claims he was defending people at the city-run campsite after he was arrested for allegedly striking a man who was trespassing.

The seal means that details about the altercation will not be available until further proceedings in the case, if at all.

The man who is listed in court records as the victim who was struck was himself arrested less than two weeks later on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly stabbing a Lawrence resident who lived in a tent near the city-run campsite. That affidavit has not been released, and the state is asking that it too be sealed.

Vance Tyler Swallow, 39, the defendant in the aggravated battery case, said during his first appearance in court that he thought he “was protecting the homeless community from someone who was hurting them,” before a judge cut Swallow off to prevent him from saying anything that would incriminate him, as the Journal-World reported.

Swallow, a resident of the city-run site in North Lawrence, was arrested after police were called around 8:30 p.m. on July 30 to the camp at 100 Maple St., where they found a man walking southbound from the camp with a significant amount of blood on him and a 2-inch gash on his forehead, police said at the time.

The man, later identified as Tristen Lemont Hollins, 41, had previously been trespassed at the site and was not permitted to be there. A camper had asked Hollins to leave, and Swallow allegedly hit Hollins in the head with a wooden object, police said.

Less than two weeks later, on Aug. 11, Hollins was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly stabbing the resident of the neighboring campsite, Bryan “Queen” Griffin, in the neck in an “unprovoked attack.” Hollins is alleged to have attacked Griffin while Griffin was walking through a pedestrian tunnel under the railroad tracks in the 500 block of North Second Street, as the Journal-World reported.

photo by: Contributed

Bryan “Queen” Griffin

Judge Amy Hanley sealed the affidavit in Swallow’s case last week. The affidavit would have provided additional details of the police investigation into the incident between Swallow and Hollins.

Hanley said in her order to seal the document that she did so at the request of Swallow’s attorney, Dakota Loomis, who said the document contains interpretations of the event by the law enforcement official who wrote it.

Hanley wrote that the document may be released after the preliminary hearing in Swallow’s case. Swallow is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 9 for a status update. He is currently free on a $5,000 surety bond.

The affidavit in support of Hollins’ arrest has not been released, and a motion to seal it has been filed by Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden.

Hollins’ address was listed at the Community Shelter at 3655 E. 25th St. at the time of his arrest. It isn’t clear how long he has been in Lawrence, but he has been in and out of custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections, Sedgwick County Jail and Larned State Hospital since 2018.

Hollins was first arrested in Douglas County on March 8 for a probation violation and again on April 6. Both times he was released after the warrant was withdrawn by the Kansas Department of Corrections, according to jail records.

Hollins’ last conviction was in Sedgwick County for felony aggravated battery. The incident occurred in 2019, but the case was continued multiple times for issues related to Hollins’ competency. Hollins was finally sentenced in May of 2022. Records indicate he was released to parole a month later. He absconded from parole in February and was arrested in Douglas County in March, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records.

Since arriving in Douglas County Hollins is alleged to have committed at least nine municipal violations, including two disorderly conduct violations, two theft violations, three criminal trespass violations and two battery violations. He is scheduled to appear in municipal court on all nine violations on Sept. 15.

The Douglas County Jail booking log indicates he was arrested by Lawrence police on suspicion of battery on both July 1 in the 700 block of Vermont Street and July 19 at the city-run support site, but he was released on an own-recognizance bond both times.

Hollins has an extensive criminal history, according to court records from the Kansas Court of Appeals. He was convicted of felony battery on a law enforcement agent in 2018 for an incident that occurred in 2015 in Sedgwick County. He was sent to Larned State Hospital twice in 2016 because he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, before he was sentenced in January of 2018.

At the time of that conviction Hollins’ criminal history placed him in the highest category on the Kansas sentencing guidelines, and he was to be sentenced to a minimum of 10 years and up to 11.3 years in prison, but the Sedgwick County District Court granted him a durational departure down to 34 months, according to court records. He had asked the court for probation in addition to the reduced prison sentence, but that request was denied.

The appeals court affirmed the 34-month sentence in December of 2018. He was paroled on that conviction before the appeal had been finalized and was charged in May of 2019 with the aggravated battery in Sedgwick County.

Hollins is currently in custody at the Douglas County Jail on a $1 million cash or surety bond. He is next scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 5.