Man sentenced to almost 8 years in prison for stealing diamond ring from dying woman

Zimmerman family and Keith Byron Hickles Jr. (right)

A man and his accomplices, were jailed for stealing a diamond ring from a woman as she laid on the floor unconscious.

20-year-old Keith Byron Hickles Jr. was sentenced Monday, to nearly eight years in prison for stealing the ring from the dying woman.

Hickles was sentenced to 94 months in prison by Sedgwick County District Judge Christopher Magana.

Hickles was one of three men convicted of stealing the ring from 43-year-old Danielle Zimmerman, after she suffered a fatal brain aneurysm at the drive-thru of a Taco Bell.

Zimmerman had gone to Taco Bell to get dinner for herself, her husband and two teenage children when she became ill. Her truck crashed into the speaker box at the drive-thru.

She died the next day. Police recovered her purse, but her ring was missing. Police reviewed surveillance video and found that the three men stole the ring after the fatal crash.

Hickles will spend 94 months in prison. Another man,
Daquantrius Johnson, was convicted earlier this month of aggravated burglary, robbery and misdemeanor theft in the ring theft case. He faces a maximum prison term of 15 years.

A third man, Quanique Thomas-Hameen, 20, was sentenced to 19 months in prison for the robbery plus a year in jail for two violations of probation.