Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced Wednesday that a criminal court judge imposed the maximum sentence on a Memphis man convicted of assaulting police officers and stabbing a police dog after breaking into a Midtown pizza restaurant. 

Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Kenneth Hayes, 30, to 40 years, 11 months and 29 days in prison.  A jury convicted Hayes last month.  Judge Coffee sentenced Hayes to eight years for reckless aggravated assault, ten years for each of two aggravated assault charges, four years for attempted intentional killing of an animal over $1,000, eight years for theft of property over $1,000, and 11 months, 29 days for evading arrest. The sentences are to run consecutively.

On January 21, 2009, Hayes rammed his van into a police squad car after he and co-defendant Thaddeus Bush were caught stealing a television from Broadway Pizza on Broad Avenue.  Hayes then fled on foot into Overton Park where he later stabbed Gunner, a police dog who was assisting his partner, Officer Roosevelt Twilley, in finding the suspect. The dog was injured but survived the attack.

Assistant District Attorneys Doug Carriker and Kate Edmands prosecuted this case.