MINNEAPOLIS — A Bemidji man will serve a prison sentence of just over eight years after pleading guilty to a pair of violent carjacking incidents in the Twin Cities metro.
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office (HCAO) says 22-year-old Justin Lee Brun was sentenced to 99 months Monday after pleading guilty to three counts of first-degree aggravated robbery in connection with the incidents, which occurred in February and March of 2021.
A news release from the HCAO says the cases were charged as armed robberies because the legislature did not create the carjacking statute until 2023, two years after the crimes took place.
Brun will be credited for 1,167 days already served.
Court documents outline the allegations against Brun in both cases, the first of which occurred on Feb. 15, 2021. Officers responded to the 3100 block of Chicago Ave. S in Minneapolis and spoke with a female victim, who told them she was in her boyfriend's SUV with the vehicle running, waiting for him to get done with a haircut when a group of males surrounded the truck and pointed at least two guns at her.
The woman said the men walked her to where her boyfriend was, with a shotgun pressed to her head. One of the men reportedly told her to "get the keys or I am going to blow your brains out." The assailants made the female victim and her boyfriend lay down on the ground and drove off in the SUV.
Officers learned the woman had left her airpods in the truck and used them to track down the vehicle. A high-speed pursuit followed, ending when the carjackers crashed into a snowbank and bailed. Police tracked them to a boarded-up home and Brun was one of those arrested.
The second incident was even more violent. Prosecutors say on March 23, 2021, Brun and a juvenile accomplice were waiting in the parking lot of a Brooklyn Center apartment complex when the victim drove in to visit his cousin. When he got out of his vehicle, the victim says two men approached, asked if he could help them find Park Center High School, and then demanded his keys.
Court documents say Brun pointed a gun at the victim's face and said "Yo, gimme the key." At that point, Brun's accomplice told him to shoot the victim, and Brun allegedly shot the man multiple times before stealing the car.
Investigators say prints recovered from inside the stolen Nissan identified Brun as the assailant.
“Mr. Brun put lives at risk in both of these incidents,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “The outcomes could have been even worse. This sentence delivers accountability for Mr. Brun and appropriately protects the community from him in the coming years.
