Hennepin attorney: Robbers of two U students plead guilty

Two men have pleaded guilty to an armed robbery on the University of Minnesota's West Bank in July, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced Monday.

Prosecutors said Javonta Shaquille Williams, 20, and Lavelle Jajuan Grayson, 23, used a semi-automatic pistol when they robbed two University of Minnesota students on July 30.

The victims, a man and a woman, told police they had been walking in the early morning near the Washington Avenue bridge that connects the east and west banks of campus when two men approached them. As one pointed a weapon at the students, the other told them to "put your face in the grass and give us everything you've got," according to charges against Williams and Grayson.

The students handed over a cellphone, wallet and their credit and debit cards. Williams and Grayson then allegedly tried to use the cards at a few light rail stations around Minneapolis.

Later on July 30, a man found a backpack containing a gun and the female victim's driver's license in a parking ramp and turned it over to police. University of Minnesota and Metro Transit surveillance videos showed two men, later identified as Williams and Grayson, in the areas of the robbery and credit card charges.

Williams pleaded guilty on Dec. 15 and will be sentenced on Jan. 16, the county attorney's office said. He's expected to draw a three-year prison sentence. Grayson pleaded guilty on Dec. 12 and was sentenced the same day to four years in prison.

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