A Minneapolis man described as the ringleader in the 2023 beating and robbery of a Mahtomedi man as he arrived home with $38,000 in casino winnings was sentenced to more than five years in prison on Monday.

Shawn Eric Lewis Sr., 54, had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery for coordinating the attack on the 68-year-old after he pulled into his driveway from Treasure Island Resort & Casino about 2:15 a.m. Dec. 10, 2023.

Lewis was among five men, including his son, Shawn Eric Lewis Jr., who were charged in the robbery, which the victim said Monday left him with ongoing physical and emotional health issues.

Nick Hydukovich, criminal division head for the Washington County Attorney’s Office, read a statement in court from the victim, who said as he was being “stalked, followed and vigorously kicked and punched in my head and my body, I thought I was going to die.”

John Chitwood, the elder Lewis’ attorney, argued that his role was less serious than a typical first-degree aggravated robbery, saying he did not “inflict any blows” or take the cash. He asked Judge Siv Mjanger for a downward departure to a three-year prison term.

Hydukovich said that Shawn Eric Lewis Sr., despite not physically committing the robbery, was the “ringleader, the hub between the spokes that everyone else was acting, in terms of tracking the victim’s location, getting the information from one person, passing it along to the next person.”

Hydukovich noted it was Lewis’ third first-degree aggravated robbery conviction, adding he had been released from prison less than a year and a half before the Mahtomedi attack.

Mjanger agreed with Hydukovich and his request for a 67-month sentence, saying his conduct was not less onerous. Evidence showed Lewis was nearby waiting in his vehicle, she said.

“I get that he didn’t throw the physical punches,” she said. “But I also believe that without his involvement and without his planning and preparation and essentially stalking of the victim, this wouldn’t have happened the way it did.”

In June, Shawn Eric Lewis Jr., 37, of Bloomington, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the same robbery charge as his father. Two other charges in the case — abetting second-degree robbery and aiding and abetting threats of violence — were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, which also included the length of his prison term.

Casino acquaintances

The victim told police he returned home in the 700 block of Griffin Court with his cash winnings when a red pickup pulled up, according to the criminal complaints.

Shawn Eric Lewis Jr. and Tristin Tyler Jacox-Mann, 35, of Golden Valley, got out of the truck and began punching and kicking the victim, prosecutors say. Deangelo Romaine Jacox, 34, of Coon Rapids, was the alleged getaway driver.

During the attack, the victim’s girlfriend and her niece came outside. One of the men 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 at the younger Lewis’ June 3 sentencing.

After the men left in the truck, the victim took off after them in his own vehicle.

He pulled over and met 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.

MnDOT highway camera footage showed a red SUV following the victim as he pursued the suspects on Highway 36. Shawn Eric Lewis Sr. was the registered owner of the SUV.

“Mr. Lewis Sr.’s vehicle drives literally right by the traffic stop,” prosecutor Hydukovich said in court Monday. “Police don’t know that he’s involved at that point, so they don’t stop 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. He exited the casino and saw Davids trying to catch up to him, the charges say.

Investigators discovered through analyzing cellphones that Jacox-Mann and Lewis Sr. had made 20 calls to each other in the hours leading up to and shortly after the robbery.

Also, Hydukovich said Monday, phone data showed that Davids followed the victim home from the same casino one night exactly two weeks before the attack. Shawn Eric Lewis Sr., meanwhile, was waiting near the Mahtomedi home.