A judge on Tuesday sentenced the second of three men charged in connection with an armed robbery case to three years of probation. Isaak A. Torkelson, 20, of Lawrence, was charged in May with aggravated robbery for allegedly stealing a man’s phone while threatening him with a hammer, or in the alternative, inflicting harm on the man during the course of a robbery. Torkelson’s charge, a level-3 felony, was ...
A judge on Monday denied motions seeking a new trial for Tommy J. May, convicted almost a year ago in connection with a July 2018 double shooting in Lawrence that injured a woman and paralyzed a man, among other offenses. A jury found on Dec. 19, 2019, that May, 61, had shot a woman in the face, shot a man in the back, fled the scene of the apartment fourplex in the 700 block of West 25th Street, where May and ...
Douglas County Sheriff-elect Jay Armbrister said it may sound “a little played out,” but he enjoys helping people who can’t help themselves. That help runs the gamut from driving a stranded motorist into town to buy a gallon of gas to consoling people who are considering taking their own lives, he said. “When somebody faced their demon and they called 911, I wanted to be the person that was there to ...
The attorney for a Lawrence massage therapist who previously contracted with University of Kansas women’s athletic teams wants the man’s child sex crime charges severed from additional counts whose alleged victims are adults. Shawn P. O’Brien, 49, was initially charged with one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, a high-severity felony. However, four adults then came forward and alleged ...
Douglas County's incoming undersheriff, Stacy Simmons, was actually close to retirement “before Jay asked me to take on this journey with him,” she said, referring to Sheriff-elect Jay Armbrister. Now she’s planning to stick around a while because she and Armbrister have the same goals, and they both want to fix problems in the community that they love, she said. “I want to see it (the community) ...
A Lawrence man was charged Tuesday in Douglas County District Court with three child sex crimes. Angel G. Fitzgerald Johns, 19, was arrested on a probable cause warrant Monday afternoon at the address listed as his home, according to jail records. Lawrence police had arrested Fitzgerald Johns in September, but he was released without being charged at that time, jail records show. On Tuesday, he had a first ...