photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Benjamin L. Mims is pictured at a Douglas County District Court hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022.

A Lawrence man was scheduled to be sentenced to prison on Wednesday in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of a Lawrence teen but the hearing was continued after the man discovered that he could be sentenced to three times longer than he had agreed to.

The man, Benjamin L. Mims, 36, pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of voluntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawful distribution of fentanyl. He was originally charged with one one felony count of distribution of a controlled substance causing death, one felony count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, and one count of distribution of a controlled substance, as the Journal-World reported.

The manslaughter charge relates to an incident on Aug. 28, 2021, in the 3300 block of Westridge Court, where Lawrence teen Mohamadi “MJ” Tompson Issa Jr., 18, died of an apparent fentanyl overdose, according to the Douglas County coroner. Mims was bound over for trial after the court heard testimony from Logan Hastie Morgan, 24, of Lawrence, who said he bought pills from Mims and sold them to Issa. Morgan was convicted of one felony count of attempted distribution of a controlled substance causing death and was sentenced to three years in prison as part of plea agreement where he agreed to testify against Mims and other local drug dealers.

Mims appeared in court on Wednesday with his attorney, Dakota Loomis. The state was represented by newly appointed Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald. Judge Amy Hanley presided over the hearing and as the hearing was getting underway about 30 people filled the courtroom including Issa’s mother Sandra Issa.

“I had no idea we had so many individuals here,” Hanley said.

Sandra told the Journal-World that she had prepared a statement to read to the court for the hearing. After learning that the hearing would be continued, she said she was disappointed and she wasn’t sure if all of those who were in attendance would be able to make it to another hearing.

Mims’ original distribution causing death charge was a level-one felony where Mims could have been sentenced to a maximum of 54 years in prison. His plea agreement reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter, a level-three felony with a penalty range between 4.5 to 20.5 years.

According to Mims’ plea agreement, the state believed that Mims criminal history was on the lower end with just two nonperson felonies on his record and that he would qualify for a sentence of 79 months, or 6.5 years.

However, a presentence investigation report revealed that Mims’ criminal history was much more extensive than had originally been thought and that Mims’ juvenile felony convictions meant that he would qualify for the highest sentence possible ranging between 18.4 and 20.5 years.

Loomis said that Mims wanted to contest the report, specifically that his juvenile convictions, which happened 20 years ago, should not count against him. The report was only filed with the court on June 21, Loomis said, otherwise he would have notified the court sooner that there was an issue. Loomis asked the court for a continuance so that he and Mims could review the report to determine whether there was any legal reason to reject it.

According to court records, Mims was convicted in connection with three cases in Wyandotte County in 2004 of two felony counts of aggravated robbery, two felony counts of theft, and one felony count of burglary. He was sentenced to juvenile custody until he was 22 years old and was placed on probation after his sentence until he was 23. He failed to comply with that probation and eventually served another six months in custody of juvenile services until he aged out of the system.

Greenwald said he didn’t object to the continuance since the state was also under the impression that Mims’ criminal history was much lower, but that whatever the next setting was that it should be a firm setting so that the “huge number” of people who were in attendance would have a clear idea of what would happen next.

Hanley then rescheduled Mims to be sentenced on August 8 where the parties will argue whether Mims’ juvenile offenses should count against him, and if the convictions are included, for Loomis to argue a durational departure motion asking the court to sentence Mims to less time than what Kansas sentencing guidelines require.

Mims was on federal parole at the time of the overdose. He was convicted in 2019 in federal court of felony possession with the intent to distribute heroin. Mims was also convicted in 2009 for felony possession of narcotics in Douglas County.