Francisco Mendez, the man accused of killing a former Washburn University football player and shooting a current NFL player during a shooting in April 2019, has been sentenced to life behind bars.
On Friday, court records indicated that Francisco Mendez has been sentenced to life in prison for the April 2019 murder of Washburn University football player Dwane Simmons.
Cornerback and kick returner for the Atlanta Falcons, Corey Ballentine was shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Court records show Mendez was sentenced as follows:
Count 1: Murder in the 1st degree – Life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years
Count 2: Attempted murder in the 1st degree – 246 months
Count 3: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 4: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 5: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 6: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 7: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 8: Murder in the 1st degree – 165 months
Count 9: Murder in the 1st degree – 165 months
Count 10: Murder in the 1st degree – 162 months
Count 11: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Count 12: Armed Aggravated Robbery – 61 months
Mendez has spent three years in jail, during which he could have given up his accomplices’ names and shown remorse for fatally shooting 23-year-old Dwane Simmons, but he chose not to.
“You will pay for the decision that you made,” Shawnee County District Judge Cheryl Rios told the 21-year-old Mendez before sentencing him to terms expected to keep him in prison for life.
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Rios sentenced Mendez to life in prison with no chance of parole for 50 years for the intentional and premeditated first-degree murder of Simmons and then sentenced him to serve an additional 41 years after that sentence has been completed on separate convictions for four counts of attempted murder and seven counts of aggravated robbery, all committed in a three-day crime spree in April 2019.
Ballentine, who had been drafted hours earlier by the NFL’s New York Giants, has since played three years in the NFL as a cornerback and kick returner. He is currently a member of the Atlanta Falcons.
