A Topeka man was sentenced this week to 18 years in prison for the 2017 armed holdup of a Lawrence convenience store, but an additional charge alleging he solicited the murder of a witness remains in limbo.
Darren L. Henry, 31, faced up to 19 years in prison after being convicted in January of aggravated robbery. According to court documents, in September 2017 Henry pointed a handgun at the clerk of a Kwik Shop in the 800 block of Mississippi Street while taking cash from the register. He fled the scene with two other people.
Two days later, a Lawrence police officer recovered clothing near the Kwik Shop that matched a description of what the suspect had been wearing during the robbery. The KBI later matched Henry’s DNA to biological samples retrieved from the clothing. A jury found Henry guilty in the robbery case after a trial in January.
Henry’s attorney, Adam Zentner, had filed a motion for downward durational departure, asking Douglas County District Court Judge Stacey Donovan to consider reducing the length of a sentence from presumptive sentencing guidelines.
Zentner argued that because no shots were fired and there were no physical injuries or property damage, “the harm in this case was significantly less than a typical case” of armed robbery.
He also cited what he called a “pattern of unfairness against the defendant” stemming from a search of Henry’s Douglas County jail cell.
In November 2021, a jailhouse informant provided information that would eventually lead to a charge that Henry had attempted to have a witness in his robbery case killed. Lawrence police armed with a search warrant went to the jail and seized documents from Henry’s cell and property bag.
Adam Hall, Henry’s defense attorney at that time, alleged that investigators had taken legal papers containing privileged attorney-client communications.
Zentner said this interference as well as the several years taken to bring the case to trial provided enough reason to reduce Henry’s sentence.
“In sum, there has been an alarming volume of unfairness exhibited against Mr. Henry throughout this case’s lengthy history which must be addressed,” Zentner wrote in his motion.
In his response, Senior Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal wrote that although it was true that no one was physically harmed, the robbery had put multiple people in danger including the clerk, a store patron who had left just prior to the robbery, and others in the neighborhood either walking or driving by.
“This is a harm, not one with a dollar amount, or a scar, or a physical impairment, but a harm nonetheless,” Leal wrote.
Leal said the court had addressed the issue of attorney-client privilege by excluding certain evidence from Henry’s trial and prohibiting testimony from the police officer who searched Henry’s jail cell. He also outlined the reasons for procedural delays including the litigation of several additional cases including a preliminary hearing for the solicitation for murder charge.
“For the majority of the time this matter has been pending, it has not been the only case of Defendant’s that has had to be scheduled,” Leal wrote in court documents.
A preliminary hearing in the solicitation case was postponed in October 2022 after Henry declined to work with attorney John Kerns, who had been appointed to represent him. The case was dismissed without prejudice in September 2023 after a witness for the prosecution left the courthouse before testifying.
Prosecutors refiled the case in November 2023, but in emails Wednesday neither the DA’s office nor Zentner could say when it might move forward.
On Tuesday, Donovan handed down the 216-month sentence in the robbery case, which is to be followed by 36 months of post-release supervision. He will be given credit for a little more than four years of time already served in jail.
“The use of a firearm when committing a criminal act is a serious threat to the public and erodes our sense of safety and security in our community,” Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez said in a press release.
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Andrea Albright (she/her), reporter, can be reached at aalbright (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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