photo by: Chris Conde/Jounral-World

Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis testifies on Feb. 20, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

The Douglas County District attorney took the stand on Thursday just a month after he was sworn into office to face allegations that he performed inadequately when negotiating a plea deal in a case involving a Lawrence teen who overdosed on fentanyl.

Dakota Loomis was a defense attorney in Douglas County until he was sworn in as the DA on Jan. 13. Until June 20, 2024, he represented Benjamin Zed Mims, 37, of Lawrence. Mims pleaded guilty on May 17, 2024, to one count of voluntary manslaughter and one count of unlawful distribution of fentanyl, as the Journal-World reported. He was originally charged with distribution of a controlled causing death, a more severe felony.

The manslaughter charge relates to an incident on Aug. 28, 2021, in the 3300 block of Westridge Court, where Mohamadi “MJ” Tompson Issa Jr., 18, died of a fentanyl overdose, according to the Douglas County coroner.

Now Mims wants to withdraw his guilty plea because he says Loomis did not investigate Mims’ criminal history ahead of plea negotiations; a person’s criminal history score has a bearing on sentencing. Nor did Loomis discuss trial strategies, witnesses or evidence with Mims; and he only went over the plea agreement paperwork with Mims minutes before the plea hearing, according to a motion filed by Mims’ new attorney, Jessica Glendening.

Mims took the plea deal thinking he faced about six years in prison, but after the court investigated his criminal history, he now faces more than 20 years. He said Thursday that he believes he is innocent and that he only took the deal because Loomis seemed unprepared for trial. Loomis withdrew from Mims’ case on June 20, 2024, after announcing his candidacy for DA in April 2024.

“But for Mr. Loomis’ deficient performance, Mr. Mims would not have accepted the plea on this case and would have insisted on going to trial. The evidence of deficient performance in this case is sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome of the case,” Glendening wrote in a motion.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Attorney Jessica Glendening, left, prepares to hand evidence to Judge Amy Hanley just after questioning District Attorney Dakota Loomis, right, during a hearing on Feb. 20, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

On Thursday, Judge Amy Hanley heard testimony from Loomis and Mims.

Loomis testified that he received the plea agreement from then Senior Assistant District Attorney David Greenwald, less than one hour before Mims’ plea hearing. He said that by the time he met with Mims, it was around 1:15 p.m. on May 17, 2024, 15 minutes ahead of the 1:30 hearing.

“That was the first time Mims saw the (plea) documents,” Loomis, who is now Greenwald’s boss, testified.

Loomis said he had negotiated the deal over the phone with Greenwald two days before the hearing when he was meeting with Mims at the Douglas County Jail. He said Greenwald had agreed to reduce the high-level distribution causing death charge and that Greenwald would recommend Mims go to prison for about 6.5 years.

At that time, Mims’ criminal history was a topic of debate between Greenwald, who thought it was higher, and Loomis, who thought it was lower. Loomis said that he believed at the time of the negotiation that Mims’ criminal history would mean that he would be sentenced to about six years while Greenwald thought it would be eight years.

The discrepancy was about convictions Mims received as a juvenile in 2004. Loomis said that he typically relies on the defendant for information about their criminal history but Mims was not sure whether he was convicted of robbery or aggravated robbery. He said a basic robbery charge would not have counted against Mims in the plea deal while aggravated robbery would.

Loomis said he did not investigate Mims’ criminal history further before negotiating the plea agreement.

Mims pleaded in the case two weeks ahead of his scheduled trial. Glendening asked Loomis what trial preparations he went through with Mims. Loomis said that his trial strategy relied solely on questioning the credibility of the state’s key witness, Logan Morgan, 25, of Lawrence.

Morgan was an informant in several fentanyl-related cases, and in Mims’ case he told police that Mims gave Morgan the pills that Morgan then gave to Issa that led to his death, as the Journal-World reported.

Loomis said that evidence in Mims’ case showed that Morgan had lied to police and that Morgan also purchased drugs from several other sources. He said that Mims was originally charged in connection with multiple overdoses, but the state dropped those charges when Loomis pointed out numerous discrepancies in Morgan’s statements to police. He said that prior to the trial the state had asked the court to prevent Loomis from telling the jury that Morgan bought drugs from several sources, but the issue was never litigated before Mims took the plea.

Glendening asked if he ever discussed with Mims other strategies or if Mims thought there were any witnesses that could help his case. Loomis said he hadn’t. She also asked if Loomis had even discussed with Mims what he might wear to trial since it is typical for a defendant in custody to borrow a suit for trial from the state. Loomis said he hadn’t made any plans for Mims’ clothes at trial.

Glendening then called Mims to the stand to testify about how confident he was in Loomis’ representation.

photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Benjamin Mims testifies during a hearing on Feb. 20, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

Mims said he met with Loomis just four times at the Douglas County Jail between his arrest on Sept. 22, 2023, and his plea hearing on May 17, 2024. Douglas County Jail administrator Lt. Vince Gonzalez testified that Mims’ recollection is supported by jail records.

Mims said the day that he first heard about the plea agreement was May 15, 2024, when Loomis was meeting with him and stepped out of the room to phone Greenwald. He said that when Loomis said that Greenwald had agreed to a six-year sentence, he took it because he was originally looking at a 20-year sentence if he lost at trial on the original charge.

When Mims’ actual criminal history, the highest possible, was revealed in a pre-sentence investigation report it indicated that if he had been convicted at trial of the original charge, he could have been sentenced to about 50 years, in accordance with state sentencing guidelines.

He said he believed he was innocent of killing Issa but that he had his children to think of, and if he served six years, he could still see part of their childhood.

“Nothing else was on my mind. No more than 79 months, no less than 74 months. I didn’t want to risk losing and doing all that time,” Mims said.

Mims said that thought carried him all the way through the hearing two days later and that when Hanley advised him at the plea hearing that she could sentence him to more time if his criminal history score came back higher than thought, he just had confidence in Loomis and Greenwald’s negotiation.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” Mims said.

Mims said he told Loomis about his juvenile convictions and that Loomis was confident that Mims would only face about six years. He said Loomis seemed confident in the deal while Mims was not confident in Loomis’ trial preparations.

Left to right, Benjamin Mims, Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald, and District Attorney Dakota Loomis, during a hearing on Feb. 20, 2025, in Douglas County District Court.

He said that not seeing Loomis for months and then having a meeting two weeks before trial made him question if Loomis would be ready. He said he had no idea what to expect from the trial except that Loomis would try to impeach Morgan. He said he didn’t know what witnesses Loomis might call or if Loomis ever investigated anything beyond what police had presented.

Mims said that now that he has done a thorough review of the evidence with Glendening he believes the evidence is in his favor that the drugs that killed Issa came from someone else.

Greenwald, representing the state at Thursday’s hearing, asked Mims if he had ever been to trial in his other adult felony cases, to which Mims said “no,” because he knew he was guilty of those crimes and was facing about two years in prison in each of those cases.

“This case was different for me. I was not guilty,” Mims said.

Hanley did not rule on Mims’ withdrawal on Thursday,allowing Greenwald to file a written response and Glendening to file additional argument. Hanley scheduled her ruling for April 25.