A 47-year-old man convicted in the accidental shooting of a 6-year-old boy at a North Topeka hotel on New Year's Eve 2011 will report to jail Nov. 4 to start his sentence of one year and two months. Peter John Blancas, of Topeka, entered a plea to one count of aggravated endangering a child, a low-level felony, on Aug. 29, according to court records.
The incident was ruled an accidental shooting, a police spokeswoman said three days after the shooting. Blancas was booked into the Shawnee County Jail at 5:54 a.m. Jan. 1, 2012, in connection with two felonies — one count of aggravated battery and one count of criminal possession of a firearm — and nine misdemeanor counts of endangerment of a child. When the child was shot, 13 people — four adults and nine children — were in the hotel room. Blancas has a criminal history B, court records said, meaning he has two or more person felony convictions. On Dec. 10, 2008, Blancas was sentenced in district court to intensive supervised probation for two years and two months after he pleaded no contest four months earlier to aggravated battery, according to court records. Blancas also was sentenced in district court in 1997 to six months in jail after pleading no contest to two counts of domestic battery, court records said. In 1993, he pleaded no contest to battery and was placed on one year of supervised probation. He also pleaded no contest in 1995 in district court to domestic battery and criminal trespassing and in 1996 to his third offense of driving while suspended.
The sentence was too light. This is the kind of guy who should receive ten years for what he did.
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