photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Antonio Jaimez

A 44-year-old man was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after pleading guilty to four of the 18 crimes he had originally been charged with.

Antonio Paul Jaimez entered a plea deal with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office that made most of his charges go away and re-characterized others like a Level 2 methamphetamine charge into a less serious Level 4 marijuana charge. The deal also dropped a separate case of aggravated escape from the Douglas County Jail, and the state also agreed to not file charges in another matter altogether.

In the end, Jaimez was convicted of a single count of unlawful distribution of marijuana in a Feb. 26, 2025, case that originally involved charges of unlawful distribution of meth, aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer, interference with law enforcement, fleeing an officer and possession of drug paraphernalia.

His plea deal also involved a separate case from June and July of last year involving two counts of attempted nonresidential burglary, three counts of criminal damage to property, two counts of conspiracy to commit theft, one count of battery, one count of vehicular burglary, one count of theft, one count of nonresidential burglary, one count of interference with law enforcement and one count of fleeing an officer.

In that case, he pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal damage to property and a single count of vehicular burglary.

In the February 2025 case, Lawrence police said that Jaimez struck a police vehicle while trying to flee, then led police on a high-speed pursuit down Sixth Street, which resulted in Jaimez crashing and then fleeing on foot.

Officers said they had attempted to contact Jaimez in the parking lot of Econolodge, 2525 W. Sixth St., about warrants he was known to have. When they approached, he quickly entered his vehicle and reversed into a patrol vehicle before driving up over a sidewalk and fleeing onto Sixth Street, they said. As he attempted to negotiate a northbound turn on Colorado Street, he lost control of his vehicle and ran over a fire hydrant, disabling the vehicle. He then attempted to flee on foot, but was cornered by officers. Police said they located a firearm in his vehicle and also found suspected drugs along the route of the chase.

In court Monday, the parties noted that Jaimez has multiple misdemeanor convictions in Ohio as well as a felony conviction in Idaho. It was not immediately clear what the felony conviction was for, but Idaho state records indicate that he was discharged from prison there in 2016.

His attorney, Jessica Glendening, said that all of his crimes were related to substance abuse and that a lengthy prison term wouldn’t let him get the help he needs and would be a “big burden” on his family.

Jaimez, addressing Judge Stacey Donovan, said he took full responsibility.

“I should do time for my actions,” he said. “I appreciate a little bit of leniency,” he added, referring to Donovan shaving one month off his sentence by granting Glendening’s motion to depart from state sentencing guidelines.

The three-year sentence was arrived at by giving him 36 months for the marijuana case and 12 months total for the criminal damage and vehicular burglary case, to run concurrently.