A 68-year-old Mahtomedi man told the court Tuesday that he thought he was going to die when two men jumped and robbed him of more than $38,000 cash as he arrived home from a casino.
He had just returned from Treasure Island Resort & Casino one early December morning in 2023 when a red pickup pulled up to his residence in the 700 block of Griffin Court.
Shawn Eric Lewis Jr. and another man got out and “vigorously kicked and punched my head, and my body felt as though they were going to kill me,” the victim said in a statement read in Washington County District Court by Assistant County Attorney Richard Podvin.
Shawn Eric Lewis Jr. (Courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s Office)
During the attack, the victim’s girlfriend and her niece came out outside. One of them pointed a gun at the women and said, “You two (expletive) better get back inside or I will kill you both,” the girlfriend told the court.
Lewis Jr. was among five men, including his father, who were charged in the robbery. In January, he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery after reaching a plea deal with the prosecution that included dismissing two other charges at Tuesday’s sentencing.
Judge Siv Mjanger followed the plea deal and gave the 38-year-old from Bloomington the agreed-upon 58-month prison sentence, which is the low end of state sentencing guidelines for the offense.
Mjanger denied a downward departure request from Lewis Jr.’s attorney, Chris Zipko, who argued that his client was not brought into the robbery until the end when he was in a dire situation with his fentanyl addiction that was “off the charts” at the time. Zipko said Lewis has completed drug treatment programs while jailed the past year and a half.
In handing down the sentence, Mjanger said the attack and robbery was “an intentional, very, very violent act that could have ended his life. So although I recognize your addiction, I acknowledge it, and I acknowledge your desire to change your life. It is an explanation, but it’s not an excuse for the behavior.”
Cases against the other men remain pending in court.
‘Stalked us’
According to the criminal complaints, the attack happened about 2:15 a.m. Dec. 10, 2023, in the 700 block of Griffin Court. After the men left in the pickup truck, the victim took after them in his own vehicle.
He pulled over and met up with a sheriff’s deputy, while other law enforcement officers pursued and eventually stopped the suspects’ pickup truck near the intersection of Minnesota 36 and White Bear Avenue.
The driver was identified as Deangelo Romaine Jacox, while Lewis Jr. and Tristin Tyler Jacox-Mann were the passengers.
MnDOT highway camera footage showed a red SUV following the victim as he pursued the suspects on Highway 36. Lewis Jr. is the registered owner of the SUV, according to the complaint against him.
The victim later told police that he ran into Philip William Davids Sr., a man he knew from his prior gambling, while at the casino on Dec. 9. He said he believed Davids was following him that night, so he went to the bathroom to try to lose him. Davids followed him into the bathroom and struck up a conversation.
When he left the bathroom, he saw Davids make a phone call. When he left the casino, he saw Davids trying to catch up to him, according to the complaints.
Investigators discovered through analyzing cellphones that Jacox-Mann and Shawn Eric Lewis Sr. had made 20 calls to each other in the hours leading up to and shortly after the robbery.
“Additionally, during the pursuit of the three suspects by law enforcement, Jacox-Mann and (Lewis Sr.) were engaged in additional phone calls,” the complaints state.
The victim also told investigators he previously had seen the red SUV while at a Festival Foods near his home, and that it followed him home.
“Your Honor, the individuals associated with this crime stalked us for over a month before this guy punched and kicked and beat a 68-year-old senior citizen,” the man’s girlfriend told Judge Mjanger on Tuesday in a statement read by the prosecutor.
‘I was like a prey’
The attack victim and his girlfriend sat in the back of the courtroom gallery during the sentencing.
Afterward, the man limped out of the courtroom. In an interview, he said he has multiple health issues from the attack.
“Headaches … my knees are all gone,” he said, then asked not to be identified adding that he remains fearful.
He said law enforcement was able to retrieve the cash stolen from him.
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“But let’s go back to that night,” he said. “I was like a prey. They came out of the vehicle and man, it was like horses out of the gate.”
In October, Jacox, 33, of Coon Rapids, pleaded guilty to fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15.
Jacox-Mann, 35, of Golden Valley, is awaiting a July jury trial on charges of aiding and abetting first- and second-degree robbery and aiding and abetting threats of violence.
Lewis Sr., 53, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty this month to aiding and abetting first-degree robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced July 21.
Davids Sr., 61, of Chisago City, faces the same charge and has a next hearing set for Sept. 26.
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