photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Maliqe Crenshaw is pictured with his attorney, Jessica Glendening, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man who was convicted earlier this year of killing a 20-year-old Topeka man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to threatening a corrections officer while in custody.

Maliqe Crenshaw, 24, pleaded guilty in Douglas County District Court to one count of criminal threat as part of a plea agreement, and the state dismissed a count of battery on a law enforcement officer that he was originally charged with.

The incident in which Crenshaw was charged took place at the Douglas County Jail on Oct. 9. Assistant District Attorney Samantha Foster said Wednesday that Crenshaw and two corrections officers got into an altercation, and one of them warned Crenshaw that if he did something like grabbing an officer’s wrist, he could face as much as 10 years in prison for that.

Foster said that Crenshaw’s response was, “If I’m going to get 10 years, then I’m going to make sure one of you dies.” She said that Crenshaw also threatened to grab the officers by the throat if they chose to use a Taser on him.

Crenshaw’s attorney, Jessica Glendening, said that while Crenshaw disagreed with the wording Foster used to describe the incident, he conceded that there was a factual basis for the criminal threat charge.

The incident occurred after Crenshaw was sentenced for a previous involuntary manslaughter conviction, but before he was transferred from the Douglas County Jail to prison. As the Journal-World reported, Crenshaw was sentenced in September to 31 months in connection with the shooting death of 20-year-old Cameron Renner, of Topeka, which took place on June 3, 2023, around 1 a.m. in the 2400 block of Cedarwood Drive.

As part of the plea deal in the criminal threat case, Foster said the state would recommend that Crenshaw be sentenced to less time than state sentencing guidelines call for, but that the state would also recommend that the time be served consecutively with his sentence for the manslaughter conviction.

Judge Stacey Donovan is not bound by the prosecutors’ recommendation, and Donovan noted that with Crenshaw’s criminal history, he could face as much as 11 to 13 months for the criminal threat charge if she were to follow state sentencing guidelines.

Donovan scheduled Crenshaw to be sentenced on Dec. 17.