Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing From Burn Victim's Fund
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 44-year-old South St. Paul man was sentenced as a career criminal Monday after pleading guilty to various crimes, including stealing money from a fund set up to help his teenage nephew, who was intentionally set on fire.
Jeffrey Stewart pleaded guilty to three felonies he committed in the last year and was sentenced to a total of 174 months in prison, according to Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom.
In October of 2011, Stewart was charged with aiding and abetting a theft in which $2,500 was taken from accounts set up to help Antoine Willis, a teenager who was set on fire by his mother's boyfriend.
Stewart aided his sister, Willis' mother, in the theft. She pleaded guilty to the crime last November. The two spent Willis' benefit money at a casino.
On Monday, Stewart also pleaded guilty to threatening two men with a CO2 gun in South St. Paul earlier this month and to burglarizing an Inver Grove Heights home last March.
"We are pleased to have obtained a significant sentence for this career offender," Backstrom said.
