1 pleads guilty in Apollo theft, assault cases

Published 10:42 am Sunday, September 18, 2016

The last of the men charged in a 2015 robbery at Apollo Liquors & Superette took a plea deal in Mower County District Court on Friday.

As part of the deal, Leonard Lamar Booth, 25, pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge, while a felony simple robbery charge was dismissed.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 5, 2017.

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Leonard also took a plea deal Friday in another case, which stemmed from a domestic issue where he took a 2003 Chrysler Sebring and shoved a 7-year-old boy.

He pleaded guilty to two gross misdemeanor — fifth-degree assault and driving after cancelation — while a felony theft charge was dismissed.

Others charged in the Apollo case include:

•David Ansell Dorenzo, 21, of Rochester was sentenced to a stayed prison term of 13 months and will serve three years of probation and 50 hours of community services as long as he follows the terms of his release.

•Treshawn Johnson, 19, was sentenced to a stayed 28-month jail term and will serve 10 years of probation for a felony county of simple robbery. The prison term could kick in if he violated the terms of his probation. He was also sentenced to 180 days in jail with credit for 149 days, along with 80 hours of sentence to service time.

A felony charge of aggravated robbery was dismissed.

•Levell Devell Booth, 22, was sentenced to 17 months in prison and was convicted of felony theft on Feb. 11.

Officers responded to a report of a robbery at Apollo Liquor, 903 W. Oakland Ave., around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2015.

Two store clerks told an officer four males fled the store without paying for four bottles of cognac valued at about $204, according to a police report.

The report stated the clerk at the register thought the men might steal something, and the second clerk in the back said he saw on the cameras three of the men stuffing bottles of liquor in their sweatshirts, and he went and stood in front of the door. Then one of the men pushed him out of the way and he fell back against a counter, hurting his back.

The suspects then fled east on First Avenue Southwest in a Buick LeSabre.

An officer located the suspects’ vehicle and two men fled the car. A second officer saw two of the suspects running north on Fourth Street Southwest between houses along the street.

The officer apprehended Dorenzo, and other officers apprehended Booth, who was in the back seat of the car.

Officers found three different types of alcoholic drinks in the Buick and a nearby yard. Banfield Elementary School was on a soft lockdown for a time during the incident.

Officers with the Austin and Rochester police departments later identified Levell Booth and Jashon Jason Cornell, 19, as the other two suspects from security photos. But Cornell’s case was later dismissed.

 April 19 case

In the second case, a victim reportedly arrived home on April 19 to find Leonard, whom she asked to leave.

But he grabbed the car keys to a 2003 Chrysler Sebring, where a 7-year-old boy was standing by the driver side door. Leonard pushed the child out of the way, resulting in scrapes on the boy’s right knee.

When officers arrived, the victim gave them a copy of the title, which indicated she bought it on March 1, 2016, but hadn’t submitted the title yet to reflect proper ownership.

Officers were informed the vehicle was driving east on Interstate 90. When they stopped him, Leonard told officers he didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance because he had just purchased the vehicle off of Craigslist from someone in Stewartville, but he didn’t know their name. He also said he had gotten a DWI in the victim’s vehicle and it had been impounded so he needed another vehicle, the report said.