St. Paul man sentenced in elaborate Minneapolis phone theft ring that targeted intoxicated bar patrons

Nick Woltman, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

A St. Paul man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly eight years in prison for his role in an elaborate phone theft ring that targeted downtown Minneapolis bar patrons.

Aaron Tracey Johnson, 26, pleaded guilty last week to one count of racketeering in the scheme, which cost its dozens of victims hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to documents filed in Hennepin County District Court.

In exchange for a 94-month sentence, Johnson admitted to his role in the theft ring and “implicated several other top members,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office said in a news release.

“People have to feel and be safe in our county,” Moriarty said in the release. “This sophisticated operation targeted unsuspecting victims enjoying a night out and contributed to instilling a culture of fear that threatens the vibrancy of our community. I am grateful for the groundbreaking and extensive investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the highly-skilled team in our office that partnered closely with them and is prosecuting the cases.”

Defense attorney Peter J. Martin, who represented Johnson in the case, said Wednesday evening that his client “reflected upon the circumstances and decided he was going to take personal responsibility.”

Johnson was charged in September 2022, along with 11 others, including St. Paulites Sharlotte Green, 21; Charlie Pryor Jr., 18; Charlie Pryor Sr., 41; Alfonze Stuckey, 23; Sherrod Lamar, 23; Emarion White, 18; and Antonio Green, 19; Bloomington resident Lawrence Miles, 22; and Minneapolis residents Zhongshuang Su, 32; Heiron Birts and David Mullins, both 26.

Between June 2021 and May 2022, Johnson and the other members of the theft ring used a handful of tactics to steal phones from people — many of whom were intoxicated — at downtown Minneapolis bars, according to the criminal complaint against him.

One method involved asking the victim to hand over their phone voluntarily. The thieves would approach a victim and say they wanted to add themselves on a social media app or enter their number into the victim’s phone. When the victim unlocked their phone and gave it to the thieves, they ran off with it, the complaint said.

The complaint also details instances where members of the theft ring used force or intimidation to steal phones. On at least two occasions, a handful of thieves associated with the ring assaulted bar patrons and rifled through their pockets, while in other cases, they showed the victim a gun — or simply implied they had a gun — and demanded their phone, the complaint said.

The thieves would then use the phones to transfer cash and cryptocurrency from the victims’ accounts into their own, before handing off the phones to Su, a middleman who would resell them locally or abroad, according to the complaint.

Related Articles