Douglas County man gets nearly 11 years in apartment gun scare case

A Lawrence man who police said held people at gunpoint inside a Michigan Street apartment will spend nearly 11 years in prison before he even begins a separate Shawnee County sentence.

Douglas County District Court Judge Amy Hanley sentenced Garnel Moore Williams, 31, on May 28 to 130 months on aggravated battery and 12 months on aggravated assault, to run concurrently. The sentence came after Williams reached a plea agreement on March 3, when he admitted guilt to the two felony counts that replaced the original charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault.

The case began late on Nov. 23, 2025, at 3250 Michigan St. in Lawrence, where police said about eight other people were socializing when the confrontation started around midnight. Lawrence police said the dispute stretched nearly three hours, included strip-searching some of the people in the apartment, and ended only after officers set up a perimeter and took Williams into custody just after sunrise.

Prosecutor Eve Kemple told the court the weapon used in the apartment was a BB gun, but the encounter still carried serious consequences. Police said Williams pointed the gun at a man, took his phone and struck him so hard in the ear that he needed sutures. Hanley’s sentence reflected the court’s view that the violence was significant, even without a firearm fired in the apartment.

Williams’ punishment was also driven by his record. Hanley said he had the worst possible Kansas criminal history score, an A, and the Douglas County sentence had to run consecutively to a Shawnee County case because he was on supervision there when the Lawrence offenses happened. In Shawnee County, Williams pleaded guilty in 2018 to robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied dwelling. He also had prior Douglas County convictions for burglary in 2014 and drug possession in 2017.

The path to sentencing was complicated. On Jan. 15, the court appointed Michael Clarke as Williams’ attorney after Williams sought new counsel, making Clarke the fourth lawyer in the case. At the March 3 plea hearing, the court also addressed concern over possible electronic contact with witness Tiara Dillon while Williams was in jail. Kemple objected, saying Williams had used Dillon to contact other witnesses and tell them not to testify, and Hanley warned that unauthorized contact with witnesses could be criminal behavior.

Before the sentence was imposed, Williams spoke emotionally about regret and his wish to change. Hanley commended those remarks, then handed down a punishment that will keep him in prison for years, with the Shawnee County term still to follow.