Sex-toy/lingerie store holdup leads to prison for man, 52
January 5, 2016 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
MUSKEGON, MI – Paul Alan Columbus has been sentenced to prison for the gunpoint holdup of a lingerie and sex-toy store two blocks from his Norton Shores home.
Muskegon County Chief Circuit Judge William C. Marietti on Dec. 21 ordered Columbus, 52, to prison for seven to 25 years after Columbus pleaded no contest Oct. 16 to armed robbery as a fourth-time habitual offender.
Columbus was arrested about 11:30 p.m. June 19, after police coaxed him out of his home in the 5400 block of Grand Haven Road following a six-hour standoff. Columbus, who was unarmed and alone when arrested, surrendered after a Michigan State Police armored vehicle smashed in a window with a pole. No one was injured. He was not charged in connection with that.
Columbus was sentenced for robbing Cirilla’s, a lingerie and sex-toy shop at 1050 E. Sternberg Road in Norton Shores, about 11:55 p.m. June 13. The store is near his home.
Norton Shores police said a man robbed Cirilla’s at gunpoint while dressed in camouflage, wearing a mask. He made off with an undisclosed amount of money and fled on foot.
Police located Columbus at his home about 5 p.m. June 19, but he didn’t respond to repeated orders from law enforcement to come out of the house, nor would he answer phone calls, Norton Shores Police Chief Jon Gale said at the time.
Columbus has earlier felony convictions of larceny in 2006, uttering a false instrument in 2007 and possession of a firearm or ammunition by a felon in 2007, all in Florida; and larceny in a building in 2012 and no-account check in 2013, both in Muskegon County.
John S. Hausman is a reporter for MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.
