Wichita man sentenced for federal gun charge

A federal judge sentenced a 22-year-old Wichita man, who has been convicted in a 2010 Lawrence robbery, to serve 12 months and one day in federal prison for a separate firearms conviction.

U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren also ordered D’Andre Tomlin on Friday to serve two years on supervised release after his prison term, said Jim Cross, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom.

Tomlin in February pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm after having a felony conviction and admitted in September — three days after his guilty plea in the Douglas County case — he possessed a Heckler and Koch 9-mm pistol, which he sold to an undercover officer. According to Grissom’s office, Tomlin was among 67 people arrested on state and federal charges as part of an 11-month sting operation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In the Douglas County case, Tomlin had pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated robbery for his involvement in a Dec. 2, 2010, robbery of three female Kansas University students at an apartment in the 1100 block of Louisiana Street. Prosecutors accused Tomlin and his two co-defendants — who were each sentenced to 11 years in prison — of entering the wrong apartment they initially planned to rob and holding the three women at gunpoint. Tomlin has not yet received his sentence in that case.

Tomlin’s attorney in the federal case argued his client was trying to get rid of the gun and had only been a convicted felon for three days.