A state judge sentenced Jason Darnell Smith to 10 years in prison yesterday for a 2008 St. Louis Heights home-invasion robbery that police said may have involved the same suspects who killed a man in Pearl City earlier the same day.

Smith, 26, had pleaded guilty to nine counts of second-degree robbery.

Police said three men forced their way into a home on Oswald Street on Oct. 27, 2008. One of the robbers was armed with an assault rifle.

Ten people were in the home. At least some were college students.

They told police the robbers were looking for someone named Cody and demanded drugs. When the robbers learned Cody no longer lived there, they stole money and some property, including cell phones, police said.

Earlier in the day, two men wearing hockey masks entered a town house on Noelani Street and fatally stabbed 29-year-old Brendan Caires. Police said the descriptions of the stabbing suspects matched the descriptions of the two robbers who were with Smith.

Police have not arrested anyone for the stabbing or Smith's companions in the robbery.