A Cherokee County man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murders of two individuals in 2020, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. Mark Hopkins II, 30, of Columbus was sentenced by Senior Judge Robert Fleming in Cherokee County District Court. Hopkins was sentenced to life in a Kansas Department of Corrections facility without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Hopkins last month pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree premeditated murder. The crime occurred in June 2020, resulting in the deaths of Blaze Swank and Kylan Shook in Cherokee County.