photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Deven Antonio Ryan is pictured during his sentencing hearing on June 13, 2023, in Douglas County District Court.

A Eudora man was sentenced Tuesday in Douglas County District Court to two years in prison for threatening two teenagers with a knife.

Deven Antonio Ryan, 19, pleaded guilty in May to one count of attempted burglary and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, all felonies, according to court records. He was originally charged with a higher-level burglary and misdemeanor battery, but those charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

The charges stem from an incident on Oct. 22, 2022, when Lawrence police responded around 4:45 p.m. to a report of battery in the 2700 block of Winterbrook Drive in Lawrence, when Ryan had an altercation with two teenage boys in which he allegedly forced his way inside the boys’ home and battered one of them before threatening them with a knife.

During Ryan’s sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Ryan’s defense attorney, Dakota Loomis, argued for a lesser prison sentence than state sentencing guidelines recommend.

Loomis said that Ryan had several convictions from when he was a juvenile that increased the potential sentence. Loomis requested that the recommended 39 months in prison be lowered to 24 months in prison. Loomis said that the state agreed to the departure as part of Ryan’s plea agreement.

Loomis said that in addition to the agreement, the incident itself was not as bad as it sounded and that Ryan was only 18 when it occurred. He said that Ryan had a minor fight with the teenage boys over a girl and that Ryan brandished only a pocket knife. He said that had Ryan not pulled the knife as he left the case would not have been considered for felony charges. Loomis said Ryan pulled the knife so the boys would not follow him.

Ryan has also been in and out of juvenile custody since he was about 10 years old, Loomis said. He said Ryan has taken responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty to the charges and has not requested a departure to probation.

Loomis said Ryan had just been released from juvenile custody prior to the incident for a criminal threat charge in Shawnee County.

Ryan spoke briefly during the hearing, apologized to the victims and said he had not intended to scare anyone.

Judge Stacey Donovan said she would grant the durational departure because of Ryan’s age, his guilty plea, the agreement with the state and because no one was seriously hurt during the incident. She sentenced him to 24 months in prison for the attempted burglary charge and 12 months in prison on each assault charge, all to run concurrently. She said he has served 234 days, or nearly eight months, in jail since his arrest.

Donovan said that going to an adult prison compared with a juvenile facility would be “hard and scary.” She advised Ryan to take advantage of any educational programs available in prison so that when he is released he has some skills to help him move on with his life.

Ryan has been in custody at the Douglas County Jail on a $25,000 cash or surety bond since his arrest in October 2022.

According to court records, Ryan has multiple juvenile felony convictions, most recently for the criminal threat in Shawnee County in 2021.

In Atchison County, Ryan was convicted in 2021 for aggravated battery with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. According to an arrest affidavit from Atchison County, Ryan had a dispute with another boy and shot the boy in the chest and arm.

In Douglas County, Ryan was convicted in 2019 of theft of a firearm. According to the arrest affidavit in that case, in September of 2018, Ryan stole a .45 caliber pistol from his father, took it to Lawrence High School and sold it to another student, Javier Romero, for $65. Ryan exchanged the gun with Romero in a bathroom at the school. The gun was later recovered by police after Romero told them that the gun was hidden under his mattress.

Romero, 20, of Lawrence, is charged in an unrelated incident with one count of murder in the first degree in connection with the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Christian Willis, of Wichita, on Sept. 8, 2021, in the 1500 block of Kentucky Street.