A Riley County judge has sentenced one of the four co-defendants in a 2019 Manhattan murder case to 15 years in prison.
At a hearing Monday, Judge Grant Bannister accepted a plea agreement from 21-year-old Jaylon Hitsman to charges of second degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated battery in the death of Tanner Zamecnik on Nov. 1, 2019 outside the Park Place Apartments. Hitsman was sentenced to 181 months, including 117 months on the murder charge and 32 months each on the lesser charges. He was also ordered to pay more than $17,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.
Jaylon’s sentence is similar to that of his brother Dylan Hitsman, who last March, pleaded to second degree murder and aggravated battery and was subsequently sentenced to nearly 24 years in prison.
The brothers, along with co-defendants Richard Goens and Shamar Sutton were involved in a drug deal which turned fatal. Earlier this month, a Riley County jury found Goens guilty of first-degree murder in addition to five other charges.
Sutton, like Jaylon Hitsman, entered a similar plea agreement in court Monday morning. Both Sutton and Goens are scheduled to be sentenced on March 3.
