A federal judge has added incarceration to injury with a long prison sentence for a Crystal man who was shot by a clerk while trying to rob a south metro Verizon store.
Jamaal M. Mays, 34, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis to 15 years prison in connection with the armed robbery of the Inver Grove Heights store in August 2017.
Mays and his accomplice, Jaquon K. Moman, 26, of Rosemount, both pleaded guilty to robbery and discharging a gun while committing a crime. Moman was given a six-year prison term last month.
"These defendants showed complete disregard for human life when they made the decision to commit armed robbery of a business establishment located in a busy suburban retail area," U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald said in a statement announcing Mays' sentence.
According to the defendant's guilty plea and court documents:
Mays and Moman entered a Verizon Wireless store in a strip mall off Hwy. 52 in the 9000 block of Cahill Avenue. Mays held the gun at the clerk's head while demanding money and cellphones.
The employee pretended to comply before he pulled a gun from his waistband and shot Mays, who fired his weapon as well.
Mays was wounded and remained at the store, while Moman ran from the scene. A stray bullet grazed a worker in an adjacent restaurant.
The clerk, employed by Verizon partner Cellular Connection, had a state-issued permit allowing him to carry a firearm in public and was not physically harmed during the encounter.
Mays did not have a permit to carry, and his handgun had the serial number scratched off.
