THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014
PAGE 3
CRIME
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Man arrested on purpose has second thoughts
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A convicted Missouri felon who intentionally got himself arrested late last year so he would have someplace to stay after an ice storm said he is having second thoughts about the decision that landed him a four-year stay with the state Department of Corrections.
Roy Murphy, 43, walked into a St. Joseph convenience store in November, approached the clerk and asked her for all of the money in the cash register. He didn't carry a weapon, didn't threaten her and even asked if she wanted him to put on an Army-green "hoodie-like" stocking cap he had brought with him.
was arrested 10 minutes later.
"I don't know what I was thinking," Murphy told the newspaper. "It was just one of those things where I kind of gave up."
He was convicted of attempting to physically take property from a victim, a felony, and was sentenced to four years.
She told him to leave, and later said she was less scared than confused. The Kansas City Star reported. When she picked up her cellphone, Murphy told her to go ahead and call police.
Murphy's public defender, Joshua Bachman, said he considers it one of the more bizarre cases of his career, but he doesn't think it's unheard of.
In December, Murphy — who had already spent nearly 14 years behind bars, starting
"I've been out for a year. I've got nothing, and I don't know how to make it on the outside."
He then walked outside and
ROY MURPHY Man arrested
when he was 19 — told a judge he had demanded money from the clerk for the sole purpose of getting sent back to prison.
"I intended to go to prison," he told Judge Patrick Robb, according to the St. Joseph News-Press. "I've been out for a year. I've got nothing, and I don't know how to make it on the outside."
"Life inside the institution and life outside the institution, they both have their challenges." Bachman said. "And for an individual that has learned how to adapt to the difficulties inside the institution, but not necessarily the outside life, it can be difficult."
It's hard to stay out of trouble after being released from prison, Murphy said, especially for someone who doesn't have anywhere to stay, nor even a place to do laundry.
"When you get right out of prison with 55 in your pocket, and they drop you off in society, I don't know what they really expect you to do."
After being released from his last stint in prison in July 2012, he spent some time in Joplin and briefly lived in a small town in southeast Kansas, according to the newspaper.
Murphy eventually met Brady Rodgers, a Platte City minister who owns the local Comfort Inn. Rodgers took a liking to him, offering him a maintenance job at his hotel and a temporary place to stay.
"He was with me for about a week and a half, doing a great job; my staff really liked him," Rodgers said.
After working a shift at the hotel Nov. 21, Murphy went to St. Joseph to see his sister. That's when an ice storm hit,
stranding him in St. Joseph with no place to stay because his sister's live-in boyfriend was on parole and couldn't have contact with other ex-convicts.
He knew he wouldn't be able to make it back to work, which likely meant another lost job, and he was still three weeks away from his first full paycheck that would let him get a place of his own.
In hindsight, Murphy said he would have done things differently, such as calling his boss and trying to explain the situation.
"Nobody actually wants to be here," he says. "I mean, I could not legitimately say that I honestly wanted to be here. And I don't want to be here. But I am here, because of the choice I made."
He will be eligible for parole in November 2015.
KU$ \textcircled{1} $nfo
It was 29 years ago yesterday that Danny Manning set a freshman scoring record by
NATIONAL
totaling 35 points in one game. It was one year ago yesterday that Ben McLemore broke that record by scoring
36 against West Virginia.
Andrew Wiggins has scored
26, 27 and 29 points in single
games this season.
Iditarod sled dog race gets underway in Alaska
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WILLOW, Ala. — A New Zealander was the first musher en route to the town of Nome when the Itditarod Trail Sled Dog Race began Sunday.
Curt Perano and 68 other mushers began the world's most famous sled-dog race by crossing frozen Willow Lake about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Anchorage.
It was a staggered start, meaning one musher left every two minutes. The order was drawn at a musher's banquet Thursday night in Anchorage.
The finish line is on Front Street in Nome, which runs parallel to the Bering Sea coast. Standing between the mushers and the finish line are about 1,000 miles of unforgiving Alaska terrain, including two mountain ranges, untamed wilderness, the mighty Yukon River and the wind-whipped Bering Sea coast.
Among those in the field are Mitch Seavey, last year's champion, and his son, Dallas Seavey, the 2012 winner.
"The last two winners might create more media interest," Dallas Seavey said before the race started. "But it doesn't mean that we're necessarily the two most competitive racers this year."
Adding to the uncertainty of this year's race is an influx of Scandinavian mushers, including two-time champion Robert Sorlie.
"I don't think we're trying to take it over," Sorlie said.
Instead, there are so many Scandinavians here because the Iditarod is the world standard for long-distance dog races, he said.
The influx of five Norwegians, or "invasion" as Yvonne Dabakk of Oslo described it, is likely just a coincidence, she said.
Dabakk said she believes all had independent plans to race the Iditarod, "and it was this year."
If she gets it, the buckle goes to her husband. "Without him, I couldn't be on the trail line at all, so I'm going to get him a buckle," Dabakk said.
She is a rookie this year, and she wants the prize given to all first-year mushers to finish the race; a belt buckle.
Aaron Burmeister wants to be the first musher from Nome to win the Iditarod.
We haven't had a winner from Nome yet. I'm working as hard as I can to be able to do that," he said.
Burmeister welcomes the return of the Norwegian mushers because they bring more competition to the race.
Allen Moore of Two Rivers, Alaska, last month won his second consecutive Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. The conditions now are the same as they were for the
"When I win the Iditarod, I want to have the best competition in the world there," Burmeister said.
The trail conditions could prove to be an advantage for one musher's wife.
start of the Quest, he said.
His wife, musher Aliy Zirkle, will be using this team on the race while Moore races other dogs.
Zirkle has finished second in the iditarod the last two years, and her team might give her the needed boost this year because trail familiarity in the Yukon Quest.
It was a beautiful day for fans at the restart of the race, with temperatures in the high teens.
Marshall's race strategy is simple: He just wants to finish the race. He plans to take it slow and simple "and get to Nome," he said.
"Our dogs have gone over 1,000 miles, and they know what to expect," Moore said
The Sunday event in Willow followed a ceremonial start Saturday in downtown Anchorage. At that fan-friendly event, mushers talked to people and had their pictures taken for hours before taking their sleds on a leisurely 11-mile (18-kilometer) run on urban trails in the city.
The race turned serious Sunday. The Iditarod had a late-a-fternoon start so fans from Fairbanks could get there.
Newton Marshall of St. Anne, Jamaica, is another international musher at the race. He's competing in his fourth Iditarod.
When asked how his team looks, Marshall said: "My team looks ... I'll find out on the trail."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The dogs of Canadian musher Karen Ramstead, from Perryval, Alberta, are decked out in appropriate colors as they cross the bridge to Goose Lake during the ceremonial start for the 2014 Iditarod Trail Sied Dog Race.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The dog team of Dan Kaduce of Chatanika, Alaska, heads down the Cordova Street hill during the ceremonial start for the 2014 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on March 1, in Anchorage, Ala.
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