photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Coby Allen Gore Holland is sworn in at his plea hearing Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Douglas County District Court. Public defender Jessica Glendening is at right.

In February, Coby Allen Gore Holland shot a 23-year-old man with a Glock-style handgun while drunkenly and recklessly handling the firearm in a car full of people.

But at his plea hearing Thursday for aggravated battery, no mention was made of a gun. Instead, the prosecutor, Adam Carey, said the victim was severely injured in the stomach, liver, spleen and spine not by a gun, but by “an inherently dangerous item or object.”

A law in Kansas, known as Special Rule 1, presumes a prison sentence if a defendant uses a firearm in commission of a person felony. However, as part of Gore Holland’s no-contest plea, the charge of unlawful discharge of a firearm in the city limits was dropped and the parties agreed that there would be “no firearm finding,” which would have set in motion Special Rule 1.

After being found guilty of aggravated battery Thursday, Gore Holland, 22, now faces 11 to 13 months of probation, assuming, as the parties do, that he has the lowest possible criminal history score, which will be determined by a pre-sentence investigation. Judge Amy Hanley warned Gore Holland that the sentencing range could be higher if the investigation returned a higher criminal history score. She also informed him that being a convicted felon meant that he could no longer possess firearms.

Carey told the court that the victim in the case, reportedly a close friend of the defendant’s, was “supportive” of the plea agreement. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 9.

In the factual basis Carey supplied to the court for the plea, he said evidence at trial would have shown that Gore Holland had consumed six shots of whisky at a Lawrence pool hall before getting into the car and recklessly using the “inherently dangerous item or object,” which severely injured his friend in multiple organs. Part of the plea agreement contemplated restitution to the victim, Carey said. Gore Holland appeared to cry briefly when the victim’s injuries were listed.

According to allegations in the affidavit supporting Gore Holland’s arrest, Gore Holland was one of seven men in a Kia Optima on Feb. 19. He was sitting in the back seat and pulled a 9mm Glock style “Shadow Systems, Elite” gun from his pocket. He reportedly told police that he was racking the gun and that somehow the driver of the Kia bumped him from the front seat, prompting the weapon to fire into the victim in the front seat.

The incident came to the attention of police after they were called to LMH Health regarding a person who had been shot. Other men in the car, but not Gore Holland, had taken the critically injured man to the hospital. Police later found Gore Holland and said he was not initially forthcoming about what had happened in the car or what he had done with the gun, which his girlfriend found and gave to police.

The police affidavit, citing a medical report, indicated that the victim had been shot in the left triceps; the bullet then traveled into the left side of his body, striking his stomach, liver, spleen and spine, requiring several surgeries.