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'Second fiddle' in Samurai sword robbery gets 3 years Justin Chapman Friday Oct 7, 2016 at 3:52 PM Oct 7, 2016 at 3:52 PM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman A Medford man will spend three years in prison for playing "second fiddle" to a Samurai sword-wielding man during a robbery the two men pulled last month in Medford to steal cash from a man they perceived as a deadbeat dad. Justin Dee Chapman, 31, was sentenced today in Jackson County Circuit Court for second-degree robbery after side-stepping almost twice the sentence in a plea agreement. A second-degree robbery conviction carries a mandatory minimum of 70 months in prison under Oregon sentencing laws. But that law, commonly called Measure 11, allows for a departure in this case because the victim was not hurt, was not in fear of imminent physical injury and Chapman has no serious past convictions that would have disqualified him from the lighter sentence. Circuit Court Judge Tim Barnack accepted the plea deal and sentenced Chapman, who appeared by video monitor from the Jackson County Jail and asked Barnack to be released from jail so he could see his family before heading to prison. "I'm not going to do that," Barnack said. Defense lawyer Paul Moser in court called Chapman "second fiddle" in the Sept. 11 robbery to co-defendant Lawrence Anthony Jackson, 49, of Medford. The male victim told Medford police that Chapman and Jackson lured him to a van parked on a lot off Biddle Road with the promise of smoking marijuana, but the men instead confronted the victim about "not providing for his child," according to a Medford police affidavit. During the altercation, Jackson pulled a Samurai sword from the van, pointed it at the victim and stole the man's wallet, money and cellphone, police said. The victim initially hesitated, then Chapman pulled what appeared to be a pistol from his waist, and then the victim complied, an affidavit said. The pair fled, but police arrested them less than an hour later in the Medford Center parking lot after finding the stolen wallet and phone in the men's borrowed van, along with the sword and an airsoft pistol Chapman pretended was a real gun, the affidavit stated. Moser said in court that the robbery was to get money to "pass along" to another person, but he did not elaborate. Both defendants were indicted by a Jackson County grand jury on charges of first- and second-degree robbery. A first-degree robbery conviction in Oregon carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 7½ years. As part of Chapman's plea deal, the first-degree robbery charge was dismissed. Jackson, who has a long history of drug and theft convictions, has a two-day jury trial scheduled for Nov. 9 in his case, court records show. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.