HAYS, Kan. (AP) A man accused of shooting a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper last year has pleaded no contest to reduced charges.
The Hays Daily News reports Trooper Doug Schulte was in the Ellis County courtroom Wednesday as Ruben Herrera Escobedo entered the pleas to aggravated battery and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
He was initially charged with attempted premeditated first-degree murder.
Schulte was wounded in January 2011 after stopping Escobedo on a traffic violation in Hays. Investigators said Escobedo got out of his pickup truck and shot the trooper in the chest with a .357-caliber revolver.
The bullet hit the edge of Schulte’s protective vest, went through his chest and exited through his back.
Escobedo is expected to be sentenced to more than six years in prison.
