photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Offender Registry

Cetewayo Ragins is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Lawrence man was sentenced on Tuesday to just under five years in prison for biting a Douglas County corrections officer on the leg.

The man, Cetewayo M. Ragins, 43, was convicted by a jury in February of biting the officer in June of 2024 after he was arrested on another charge.

Judge Amy Hanley sentenced Ragins to 57 months in prison for the biting incident. His attorney, Hatem Chahine, had asked Hanley to grant Ragins leniency; state sentencing guidelines recommended a minimum 10-year prison sentence in light of Ragins’ criminal history.

Chahine said that Ragins had been on the streets since he was just 13 years old, which has affected the way he makes decisions. He said that only now, as he faced more than 10 years in prison, has Ragins seen the consequence of his behavior.

Ragins, speaking on his own behalf, said he has been reading about trauma during his jail stay and now realizes how his troubled childhood may be guiding his actions in adulthood. He apologized for biting the officer and said that he has a friendly relationship with that officer in the jail.

“I am sorry for my actions that caused harm,” Ragins said, adding that he wants a chance to get clean from drugs and address his mental health issues. He said he has spent plenty of time in prison and that he can be successful there. He said the difference between prison and regular life is that prison moves slowly, which allows him to make decisions more deliberately.

“Whatever successes I make in prison are negated,” Ragins said, taking a long deep breath, “by life.”

Hanley granted Ragins’ request for leniency, saying her decision was based on several reasons, including those mentioned by Chahine. She said she was also weighing Ragins’ criminal history; the major crimes in his past are at least 14 years old, and some are over 20 years old. She said she is also trying to remain consistent in sentencing in relation to other cases.

She said that she did not disregard the injury the officer suffered, but in recent months she has seen sentences for second-degree murders that were equal to or less than what the state recommended for Ragins.

Ragins has two remaining cases in Douglas County District Court. In the case for which he was arrested in June of 2024, when he bit the officer, he is charged with one count each of misdemeanor battery and interference with law enforcement.

He is also charged with one felony count of aggravated assault and one felony count of battery on a law enforcement officer in connection with an incident in February 2024.

Ragins has past felony convictions in Douglas County for aggravated burglary in 2011 and drug possession in 2020 and 2002. He was also convicted of felony burglary and theft in 2001, according to Kansas Department of Correction records.

Ragins is next scheduled to appear in court on May 21 for a status conference in his other cases.