This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Utah man who served 20 years at the Utah State Prison for trying to kill three employees at an Arby's during a robbery was sent back to prison on Monday.
This time, Richard D. Lawrimore was accused of chatting online with an undercover officer whom Lawrimore thought was a 13-year-old girl, according to court documents. He planned to meet the girl to have sex with her in February, prosecutors allege, but was met by officers who arrested him.
On Monday, Lawrimore pleaded guilty to attempted enticing or soliciting a minor by internet, a third-degree felony. A 4th District judge immediately sentenced the 39-year-old man to spend up to five years at the Utah State Prison, according to court records.
Lawrimore was released on parole last September, after he served two decades for a 1996 robbery, in which he and his father approached three Arby's employees who were leaving work and forced them back inside at gunpoint.
One employee was shot five times and stabbed six times before he managed to jump out a window and call police. The other two workers were forced to disrobe and lie on the floor while the Lawrimores — who had injected methamphetamine for two days — sawed at their throats with butcher knives.
The attack stopped when the victims played dead and the father and son left with cash stolen from the restaurant and one of the employees.
Two of the workers recognized the younger Lawrimore as a former Arby's employee who had been fired two weeks earlier, and the father and son were arrested about three hours after the robbery. Police said the Lawrimores had dropped the stolen money near the restaurant while fleeing.
The younger Lawrimore pleaded guilty to one count of attempted aggravated murder. His father, Richard L. Lawrimore, now 58, pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated murder. The parole board rejected the father's request for release, and he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.