PALMER �” A Wasilla man will serve 10 years in prison after pleading no contest to robbing a Japanese tourist in July of last year.

Edward Wooley, 40, maintained his innocence during the Tuesday sentencing hearing. Wooley said he regrets the time he has lost with his daughter and his family and the embarrassment they have suffered.

“The only other regret I have is that I’m letting the person that’s guilty of this crime that I’m going to be serving 10 years for get away with it,” Wooley said. Wooley’s attorney, Eugene Cyrus of Chugiak, said he was pleased the state had agreed to allow his client to plead to a single count of robbery instead of slapping him with an additional count of robbery with a dangerous instrument. Cyrus said there was some debate as to whether the log Wooley was alleged to have used constituted a dangerous instrument. The more serious robbery charge would have carried a 15-year sentence.

The case began July 11, 2007, when Reona Kobayashi showed up at Alaska State Troopers’ Palmer Post to report his campsite at Jim Creek had been plundered and his camping equipment stolen, according to trooper reports.

Later that day, after buying replacement equipment, Kobayashi was out walking in Palmer when a brown pickup pulled alongside him.

Kobayashi said the driver, who he later identified as Wooley, told him a “bad person” had been found with his camping equipment. The driver offered to get the stuff back for him if Kobayashi paid him $400, according to the reports. Kobayashi negotiated the payment down to $200, which he paid.

Wooley drove Kobayashi around the Valley before returning his camping equipment and the two camped out for the night near Jim Creek with Wooley’s daughter and a friend of Wooley’s, troopers report. In the morning, Wooley gave Kobayashi a ride on a four-wheeler.

“Once the individual had Mr. Kobayashi out of sight of other individuals he hit him over the head with a log,” Trooper Eric Hinton testified Tuesday. Wooley then took Kobayashi’s money, traveler’s checks and other belongings.

Kobayashi had bruises on his arms and a bump and cut on his head, Hinton said. Between Wooley’s arrest and the hearing, a video had surfaced, found on a camera in the Jim Creek area. Hinton said Kobayashi identified himself as the man on the tape.

In the video, the camera appears to be on the ground. A man screams in heavily accented English, “I pay! I pay!”

A voice strikingly similar to Wooley’s responds, “You’re gonna pay,” and “I will break your [expletive] arm!”

Assistant District Attorney Alison Collins told Superior Court Judge Eric Smith that the maximum sentence allowed for the robbery, 10 years, was appropriate given Wooley’s past criminal history (which includes three felony convictions), the nature of this robbery and trouble Wooley has gotten in while in jail, where he has been slapped with five disciplinary write-ups for threats, destruction of property and participating in a disruptive demonstration.

“That’s a very horrendous activity that my client is accepting responsibility for,” Cyrus said in agreeing with Collins. “It’s clearly a strong-arm robbery.”

Tuesday’s hearing had a brief interruption when Cyrus stood up to answer his cell phone, then motioned for the court to continue as he began to leave.

“Absolutely, positively not! You will not answer your phone,” an apoplectic Smith shouted from the bench.

Cyrus stood his ground, explaining he had not been aware the day’s proceedings would last as long as they had and saying he needed to inform an Anchorage judge he would miss an appearance there.

Smith eventually called a brief recess.

“Out! Go! Call! Do it!” he shouted at Cyrus before adding, as the lawyer left, “I can’t believe it!

“Mr. Cyrus if you do that again, I’m going to report you to the Bar Association,” Smith said when Cyrus returned.

After the hearing, Smith told Cyrus the proper thing would have been to inform him of the conflict beforehand so he or his staff could e-mail Anchorage on Cyrus’ behalf.

As part of his plea, Wooley will pay $700 restitution to Kobayashi, who participated Tuesday through an interpreter via telephone from Japan.