The man who ransacked the U.S. Post Office in Hopkinsville in 2019 will receive treatment in a mental health facility as part of his sentence.
A bench trial recently ended with Circuit Judge Andrew Self finding 60-year old Mark Cunningham guilty of third-degree burglary and first-degree criminal mischief for the 2019 incident at the post office and guilty of second-degree criminal mischief for a 2020 incident when he used red paint to spray #TRUMPWEREDYOURBOOK and #ARTOFTHEDEAL on a wall of the old Henderson-Moorefield Lumber Company building near East Seventh Street and the railroad crossing.
ECC received a phone-in alarm at the post office at about 9:20 p.m. on January 21 of 2019 and arriving officers saw Cunningham walking away from the building. They made contact with him still dragging two postal bags at the Little River Motel and he said he broke in and destroyed the post office because “it had to be done.”
The door to the employees’ area of the building had been kicked in and items were knocked over in the service area. The employees’ area was ransacked and destroyed, with electronics all over the floor—and mail and documents were thrown and ripped up.
Joseph DeMarco with the Department of Public Advocacy told Judge Self Monday morning that Cunningham is currently unmedicated, but he will have a bed available at the Hope Center in Lexington once he can be stabilized at Western State Hospital in Hopkinsville.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Bolen did not object to the mental health treatment and Judge Self probated Cunningham’s five-year prison sentence, so long as he is admitted into the program.
Cunningham must also make restitution of $9,800 to the U.S. Postal Service and $250 to the owner of the building he spray-painted.
In other court news from Monday, 20-year old Joshua Long of Cerulean had been set to enter a guilty plea as part of a deal in his second-degree manslaughter case for the January, 2021 drug overdose death of 23-year old Corbin Bowling of Crofton, but his attorney was sick and the hearing was postponed until Wednesday. Long and 20-year old Seth Henderson of Hopkinsville allegedly sold the narcotics to Bowling that she would overdose on. Henderson is set to go to trial in late May on a second-degree manslaughter count.
Mark Cunningham