Sox's Kukuk pleads no contest to robbery

Red Sox prospect Cody Kukuk faces up to nearly 43 years in prison after pleading no contest Thursday to aggravated robbery, robbery and aggravated burglary related to a home invasion arrest last year, according to the Lawrence Journal-World.

Kukuk, 22, accepted a plea deal on Thursday to lesser charges related to his arrest last November, when he was charged with burglary and four counts of aggravated robbery. He and four other co-defendants were accused of invading a home, beating a man and stealing $900, four ounces of marijuana and an Xbox from an apartment near Kansas University.

Kukuk was Boston's seventh-round pick in the 2011 Draft and received an $800,000 signing bonus after he was named the Gatorade and Louisville Slugger Baseball Player of the Year for Kansas in 2010 while at Free State High School in Lawrence. He was placed on the restricted list on Dec. 11, 2014.

He remains free on bond and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9, when he faces up to 519 months in prison, the report said.

The 6-foot-4 left-hander debuted in 2012 with Boston's Rookie-level Gulf Coast League affiliate and rose to Class A Advanced Salem last summer, where he went 7-7 with a 4.47 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 102 2/3 innings between two levels.

The McLouth, Kansas, native was arrested on Nov. 8, 2014 after fleeing to Long Beach, California. He was extradited back to Lawrence and was charged along with Yusef Kindell, Driskell Alan Johnson, Zachary Pence and Gabriel Patterson, all of Lawrence, after they allegedly targeted a man they believed to be a drug dealer on the 900 block of Arkansas Street.

According to the Journal-World, Pence said the group of men "agreed to rob 'these people who sold weed.'" Kukuk "used a table leg as a weapon to beat KU senior Christopher Adams" as per the testimony of Pence, who took took a deal from prosecutor Eve Kemple that reduces his charges in exchange for his testimony.

Pence, according to the Journal-World, testified that "Kukuk showed him a backward hoodie he planned to wear over his head with eyeholes cut out to disguise his face and a wooden table leg he intended to use as a weapon. Kindell wore a bandana around his face."

The newspaper said Johnson, armed with an unloaded gun, "threatened the man with a gun and 'pistol whipped' another resident" while the other three men stayed near the entrance to the apartment. Both Pence and Adams said the victims were beaten and the group took money, drugs, a cell phone and an Xbox from the residence.

Adams told police that "he was asleep when two men with ski masks burst into his bedroom, turned on the light and began striking him with a wooden table leg and pointing a gun to his head," according to the newspaper.

Lawrence police originally alleged that Kukuk broke into a local apartment "with handguns, battered residents and took their belongings." Kukuk had a previous run-in with the law in 2012 when he was arrested on DUI charges, although they were later dropped.

Pence, who likely faces probation, will enter a plea on May 22, while Johnson pleaded guilty in March to aggravated robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28. Kindell, who will be sentenced on June 17, pleaded no contest to two counts of robbery and faces up to 272 months in prison. Patterson is due to appear in court on May 14.

Kukuk's last Minor League appearance came on Aug. 28, 2014 when he allowed five runs over 3 2/3 innings in a loss at Frederick. He was the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week on July 28, 2014 after holding Myrtle Beach to a pair of hits while striking out a career-high 10 batters over six innings on July 25. He went 4-13 with a 4.63 ERA in 26 outings in 2013 with Class A Greenville.