Topeka man sentenced to prison for hunting death
3:33 p.m. Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Thomas Kent, 57, of Topeka
Thomas Theron Kent will spend nearly three years in prison and never hunt with a gun again after a sentence was handed down this afternoon.
Chief Judge Merlin Wheeler sentenced Kent to 32 months in prison for his involuntary manslaughter conviction in the Dec. 15 shooting death of Beau M. Arndt of Americus and Emporia State University student. The incident occurred late last y ear in Lyon County while Arndt and two friends were lying in a field waiting for geese after placing decoys in a field.
Arndt's friends say a truck stopped along a nearby road and someone inside fired a rifle shot into the decoys, hitting Arndt. That man turned out to be Kent. A jury found Kent guilty June 30.
Beau Arndt
The conviction brings with it a mandatory prohibition of possessing or carrying a firearm.
Despite arguments from Kent's attorney, Wheeler declined to suspend the prison sentence and place Kent on probation. The 57-year-old man immediately was taken into custody. He's been on bond since his arrest in the case in January.
Information for this story provided by the Emporia Gazette.
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