25 years ago: Topeka man sentenced for Lawrence pawn shop robbery

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 30, 1988:

  • A 27-year-old Topeka man had been sentenced the previous week to five to 20 years imprisonment on charges stemming from the robbery of a downtown pawn shop in February 1988. Douglas County District Judge Ralph King Jr. had given Carl E. Cunningham the minimum sentence on a felony count of aggravated robbery to which the man had pleaded no contest on June 7 and had been found guilty. Cunningham had also been ordered to pay $50 restitution for a damaged counter at the pawn shop. Sentencing had not yet been given for Alan G. Tucker, 22, Topeka, who was also charged in the crime. The police report stated that the two men had forced their way into the shop, blindfolded, handcuffed, and gagged the manager, and had then attempted to steal several envelopes filled with jewelry and other items.
  • Rain and distant lightning had been enough to suspend play on Friday at the Kansas Open. Golfers at the Alvamar event had been dismissed from the course for about two hours while a storm passed through Lawrence. Hicks Malonson, a golfer from Marietta, Georgia, admitted that he had instigated the suspension, adding that he hated lightning: “It doesn’t have to be that close to get your attention. It was on the edge of the storm, but that’s where it hits.” Play on the previous day had begun at 7:30 a.m. and had wrapped up at sunset, giving golfers a 12-hour day.