photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Cadence Elijah Nunez-Ruckman

A Lawrence man was granted probation on Wednesday in two cases, one in which he was accused of threatening a family with a handgun at a laundromat, and another in which he was accused of choking his mother while out on bond.

In November 2024 in Douglas County District Court, 28-year-old Cadence Elijah Nunez-Ruckman entered a plea agreement to resolve both cases, pleading no contest to possession of methamphetamine, aggravated domestic battery and misdemeanor endangerment. And on Wednesday, Judge Stacey Donovan sentenced him to 40 months in prison, or over three years, and then suspended that to two years of probation.

Nunez-Ruckman had originally been charged with six criminal counts across the two cases: aggravated domestic battery, misdemeanor domestic battery, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The incident at the laundromat, which was reported on Dec. 10, 2023, was the older of the two cases, and before the plea agreement was reached, Nunez-Ruckman had been ordered to stand trial over it.

That happened at a hearing in March 2024, after testimony from the couple who alleged that Nunez-Ruckman threatened them and their 4-year-old child. The man testified that he had lost his debit card while at the Lawrence Laundromat on 23rd Street and that Nunez-Ruckman approached his fiancee with the card and asked if it belonged to him.

The man said he then checked his bank statements and saw a recent transaction for $20 that he didn’t recognize.

He wanted to confront Nunez-Ruckman, he testified, but he didn’t do it immediately because his fiancee warned that Nunez-Ruckman was carrying a large knife on his hip. Instead, he said, he waited until he and his family were leaving the laundromat, and as they passed Nunez-Ruckman he accused Nunez-Ruckman of using the card.

This started a brief argument between the man and Nunez-Ruckman, the man testified, but the man eventually broke it off and walked away. As he did, he testified, Nunez-Ruckman told him to turn around.

“I turned around, and he had the gun cocked and pointed at me,” the man said. “My fiancee was, like, right there. She’s putting my son in the seat, so she’s right there too.”

The woman corroborated the man’s account in her testimony and said they all quickly got in the car and left — “I just wanted to get my son in (the car) as fast as I could,” she testified.

A Lawrence police officer who interviewed Nunez-Ruckman, Officer Johnny Aguero, also testified at that hearing. He said Nunez-Ruckman confirmed that he was in an argument over a debit card at the laundromat but denied pulling out his firearm.

The domestic battery incident was alleged to have occurred while Nunez-Ruckman was out on an own-recognizance bond in the laundromat case. He was accused of choking and battering his mother on Aug. 1, 2024.

On Wednesday, Nunez-Ruckman’s attorney, Gary West, asked Donovan to grant Nunez-Ruckman probation. West argued that Nunez-Ruckman had a serious drug problem and needed treatment that couldn’t be provided in a prison setting. Nunez-Ruckman had already undergone a drug treatment evaluation, West said, and it recommended that he receive outpatient treatment.

Deputy District Attorney David Greenwald said the state would not object to probation and that Nunez-Ruckman had no criminal history before these cases.

Donovan said she would follow the recommendations of the attorneys. She advised Nunez-Ruckman to take this chance to get help with his addiction issues, and that he should see probation as an “opportunity, not a punishment.”