Charges: Teen killed after answering Craigslist ad

A Maplewood man has been charged with murder for allegedly shooting a teenager who responded to a Craigslist ad for a cell phone.

Ramsey County prosecutors today charged Steven Emmanuel Lewis, 26, with second-degree murder and first-degree aggravated robbery for the shooting death of 19-year-old Aung Thu Bo.

Bo drove with his girlfriend to meet Lewis at a St. Paul restaurant Friday to buy an iPhone that Lewis posted for sale on the website Craigslist, according to a criminal complaint. When the couple arrived, Lewis allegedly approached the car and said he left the phone's charger at his home.

"Bo was hesitant to go to the man's house and asked to see the phone in order to determine if he was even interested in buying it," the complaint said. "The man was hesitant and eventually said the phone, too, was at his house."

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Bo's girlfriend urged Bo to drive to the home, and Bo relented, police said.

Lewis got in the backseat and gave Bo directions. When the teenager stopped the car, Lewis pulled out a gun and said, "Give me what you got," the complaint said.

Bo struggled to find his wallet, and when Lewis reached around the seat to search his pockets, a gun went off, according to the complaint. Bo was shot in the head and died at Region's Hospital on Sunday.

A police officer arrested Lewis after he was spotted talking on his cell phone in another car with blood on his fingers, the complaint said. Lewis appeared to have been shot in the arm, but it remains unclear how he received the injury, said St. Paul Police Department spokesperson Howie Padilla.

Padilla said Bo followed several safety precautions before the encounter turned fatal.

"He went to what he believed to be a public area. He brought somebody with him," Padilla said. "These are some of the things we tell people to do."

Lewis will make his first court appearance in Ramsey County District Court on Monday afternoon.