By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
An Ohio man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday in Ellis County District Court for a July 2022 robbery of the Hays 27th Street Dollar General.
Batalova Senuoke pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and aggravated battery in April.
Senuoke’s sentencing in Ellis County was continued in May so he could be extradited to Kentucky to face similar charges there.
On July 21, 2022, Senuoke of Columbus, entered the 27th Street Dollar General and threatened an employee, by placing a gun to her head and demanding money.
Senuoke and another man from Ohio, Bryan Anthony Parsley, and a third person fled Hays and were eventually stopped by law enforcement following a high speed chase in western Kansas.
At Monday’s hearing, Ellis County Attorney Robert Anderson said Senuoke was convicted of two counts of first-degree robbery in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in August.
As a result of the Kentucky plea agreement, Senuoke was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years and two months.
Anderson and the defense attorney both argued that Senuoke’s prison sentence from the Kansas conviction should run concurrent to the Kentucky prison sentence of 120 months. They both argued that would mean that Senuoke would never have to come back to Kansas and the taxpayers of Kansas would not have to pay to house Senuoke with the Department of Corrections.
“This defendant doesn’t have any ties to Kansas,” Anderson said. “Sometimes we have people serve time in Kansas, they parole in Kansas and now we’ve to a resident of Kansas that we never intended on having and that quite frankly we don’t want to have.”
Herrman echoed Anderson’s statement, “Mr. Senuoke has no ties to the state of Kansas, sentencing him to more than 120 months (in prison) is setting us up to have Mr. Senuoke back in the community. Mr. Senuoke doesn’t want to be back in our community and, frankly, I don’t think our community wants Mr. Senuoke back.”
Despite the plea agreement, Ellis County District Judge Tom Drees elected to sentence Senuoke to 107 months for aggravated robbery and 13 months for aggravated battery for a total of 120 months, or 10 years, to be served consecutively with the Kentucky sentence. This means that Senuoke will serve the 12-year prison sentence in Kentucky and then return to Kansas to serve the additional 10 years.
Drees said, “I agree that the 120 months is the correct sentence in this matter, [but] I do not agree with running the [sentences] concurrent.”
After the sentenced was announced by Drees, Senuoke and Herrman broke from the hearing to discuss the sentencing.
Senuoke disagreed with sentences running consecutively and not currently.
When they returned to the hearing, Herrman asked Drees to reconsider the sentence because he believed that Kentucky already ruled that the sentences should run currently. Herrman said he believes that would be an order that the Kansas court does not have jurisdiction over.
Drees said the sentences he handed down come after the Kentucky sentences.
“These are sentences number 21 and 22, he’s got three prior person felonies, an [aggravated] assault, including two [aggravated} robberies, first-degree robberies in Louisville. Because of his history, because of the severe nature of the crime, [and] the use of a firearm and the harm to the victim is not appropriate to run them concurrently.”
Drees said he is not modifying the sentence in Kentucky, he sentenced him in Kansas.
He added that the issue can be brought before the appellate court on appeal. Senuoke has 14 days from sentencing to file the appeal.