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Sentence upheld for assault at Burnsville game

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Dec 28, 2011 at 11:33 am

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A Minneapolis man convicted of assaulting a boys' basketball commissioner at a tournament in Burnsville will not get a lesser sentence.

Fifty-year-old Robin Johnson was sentenced to six years in prison for attacking the club director, cracking three of his teeth, after Johnson's son's sixth-grade boys basketball game on Feb. 13, 2010.

Johnson pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Johnson argued that Dakota County District Judge Michael Mayer should have sentenced him to probation.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals denied Johnson's request Tuesday, stating that his argument was "wholly without merit.''

The order by the three-judge panel referenced Johnson's long, violent criminal history, which includes attempted murder.