photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Maurice Buckner appears in Douglas County District Court Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, with his attorney, Albert Harris.

A convicted felon’s hopes of evading prison were disappointed Friday when he was handed a prison sentence as well as a lecture about being an adult.

“You had an assault rifle and you pointed it at a group of children,” Judge Amy Hanley told Maurice De’Anton Thomas Buckner, 34, who was convicted on May 24 after he pleaded no contest to attempted aggravated assault and one count of criminal threat.

Hanley sentenced Buckner, of Lawrence, to six months in prison for each felony conviction, to run concurrently.

The convictions relate to an incident on May 3, 2023, in which Buckner had a confrontation with kids near Free State High School and ended up pulling a loaded AR-style rifle on them, as the Journal-World has reported.

“The actions he carried out are pretty atrocious,” Assistant District Attorney Adam Carey told the court in asking for the sentences to run consecutively, and Hanley, though opting for concurrent sentencing, apparently agreed with Carey’s appraisal as she noted how often people in this jurisdiction are now “handling things with a firearm when emotions are involved.”

Buckner’s attorney, Albert Harris, in his pitch for probation, had said that Buckner realized the seriousness of his actions and that he was simply attempting to defend an autistic child when he confronted the Free State students. He told Hanley that Buckner was getting mental health care and was going to pursue anger management therapy.

Buckner himself told the court: “I do truly apologize for actions I took,” and said he realized he could have responded “differently,” to which Hanley quickly replied, “What would you have done differently?”

Buckner answered that he wouldn’t have approached the kids and would have let school authorities handle the matter.

When Hanley asked if any victims wanted to address the court, Carey said they were “too scared” to come to court and provide victim impact statements.

In discussing why she was declining an optional nonprison sentence for Buckner, Hanley told him that he was not a good candidate for probation, noting that he had failed to appear for multiple court dates, did not keep his GPS monitor charged and had an angry outburst with the staff monitoring him.

She said he had thus far not shown himself “amenable” to reformation.

After sentencing, Buckner was immediately handcuffed and led from the courtroom.

Though Buckner has a low criminal history score for purposes of this case, he has pending cases that have yet to be resolved, including forgery and theft-by-deception counts in Douglas County that were filed last month regarding an incident in 2023, and a 2023 case of attempted aggravated battery in Franklin County that was originally charged as a stabbing.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Maurice Buckner is taken into custody after his sentencing in Douglas County District Court on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024.