By Mack Callahan
Asking for a Friend
Every morning in Topeka there’s a routine.
Coffee. Weather. Scroll the Shawnee County booking report to see what the overnight shift produced.
Most days it’s the usual lineup — warrants, probation violations, someone who decided 2 a.m. was a good time to test their DUI luck on Wanamaker.
But every once in a while a name pops up that makes you lean back in your chair and mutter:
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
This week’s returning guest star is Derick Renee Crawford, booked March 6 at 2:25 p.m.
And the new charges aren’t exactly jaywalking:
- Second-Degree Murder (Intentional)
- Aggravated Robbery – Armed with a dangerous weapon
- Aggravated Burglary
- Criminal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- Federal hold
Each state charge carries $1,000,000 bond, and the federal hold comes with no bond at all.
Which is the legal system’s polite way of saying:
“Yeah… we probably shouldn’t let this one wander off again.”
A Career Built on Second Chances
If Crawford’s name sounds familiar in Topeka, that’s because it’s been circulating through the system for well over a decade.
Back in 2013, Crawford was indicted for the armed robbery of the Red Robin on SW 6th Street.
According to federal prosecutors, employees were held at gunpoint and threatened with death while Crawford and a partner cleaned out the place.
He later pleaded guilty and in 2014 was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison.
Seven years.
Apparently that wasn’t enough time to rethink a career path.
Because Crawford’s criminal résumé already had a chapter before that.
In 2009, while being held in the Shawnee County jail, Crawford escaped custody while working as a trustee in the food service area — reportedly jumping a fence and running.
Nothing screams rehabilitation quite like turning cafeteria duty into a prison break.
And the hits kept coming.
In 2019, Crawford was indicted again for robbing two Advance America loan stores, one in Lawrence and another in Topeka.
Each robbery charge carried the possibility of 20 years in federal prison.
The Revolving Door Is Getting Worn Out
Now Crawford is back in the booking report again — this time attached to allegations including murder and armed robbery.
At some point you have to stop pretending this is a mystery.
This isn’t a story about a man who slipped up once.
This is what happens when someone treats the criminal justice system like a career development program.
Arrest. Prison. Release.
Repeat.
Topeka residents keep hearing speeches about reform, rehabilitation, and second chances.
And sure — some people deserve them.
But when the same names keep appearing in the booking report year after year, eventually the public starts asking the question nobody in polite policy circles wants to say out loud:
How many chances is enough?
Meanwhile in Topeka…
While the debates rage on about bail reform and sentencing policy, the Shawnee County jail keeps filling up with familiar faces.
Some people show up once and disappear.
Others come back often enough that the booking desk might as well keep a loyalty punch card.
Ten arrests and the eleventh one is free.
And if the allegations in this newest case are proven true, the only real question left might be whether the system finally decides to stop treating violent offenders like returning customers.
Until then, tomorrow morning the rest of us will keep doing the same thing we always do:
Pour the coffee.
Open the booking report.
And wonder which familiar name is coming back next.
