Golf champion’s son gets 25-year sentence for downtown robbery

Kim Smith

Thursday, March 30, 2000 | 9:50 a.m.

David Casper, the son of two-time U.S. Open golf champion Billy Casper, was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday on robbery charges.

Casper pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and robbery with the use of a deadly weapon in connection with the November robbery of the Bunkhouse Bar on South 11th Street near Fremont Street.

He was arrested when police staking out two cars that had been stolen saw him approach the vehicles, which were parked outside the Wild Wild West hotel-casino on West Tropicana Avenue.

District Judge Mark Gibbons gave Casper, 26, eight years for the attempted robbery and 12 1/2 years for the robbery with the sentences running at the same time. However, because Casper used a gun during the robbery, he received a second 12 1/2-year sentence that must be served after the others.

Casper won't be eligible for parole for 10 years.

Defense attorney Kirk Kennedy had asked Gibbons to be lenient with Casper because he still faces trial on 38 felony charges in San Diego County. Although it's not an excuse, Kennedy said his client was on drugs at the time of the offenses.

When given the chance to address the court, Casper apologized to everyone he frightened and put at risk. He said he obviously wasn't in his "right state of mind."

Chief Deputy District Attorney William Koot pointed out that at the time of the Nevada incidents, Casper was wanted for violating parole in California. If given the chance, Koot said, Casper would likely continue his life of crime.

Gibbons said he can't understand what happened to Casper, given the life of privilege he grew up in. The seriousness of the crimes called for a lengthy sentence, the judge said.

"You were a one-man crime wave in California and I don't know if you ran out of victims there and came here or what. I just don't know what happened," Gibbons said.