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Minneapolis Man Pleads Guilty To Robbing 2 Speedway Gas Stations, Super 8 Hotel

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Twin Cities man pleaded guilty Wednesday to armed robbery at two Speedway gas stations and a Super 8 Hotel last February.

Keanu Ross, 30, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty to three counts of aiding and abetting interference with commerce by robbery and one count of carrying and shooting a gun during a crime of violence, the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Minnesota announced Thursday.

According to court documents, Ross robbed a Speedway gas station in Columbia Heights at gunpoint on Feb. 4, stealing $140 in cash, lottery tickets and various tobacco products. He fled the scene in a vehicle waiting blocks away. The driver, 30-year-old Antoinette Dobyne, is also charged.

About a week later, on Feb. 12, Ross robbed Speedway gas station in Fridley. According to investigators, Ross brandished a gun and demanded cash from the clerk. He allegedly ordered the employee to get on the ground and kicked them in the face. Again, Ross took cash, tobacco products and lottery tickets. Ross and Dobyne cashed in the lottery tickets over a period several days, investigators said, as the two were captured on surveillance video.

On Valentine's Day, Ross and another man robbed a Super 8 Hotel in Brooklyn Center, the court documents say. They were driven to the hotel by Dobyne in her SUV.

Investigators say that Ross and the other man ordered a hotel employee to the ground at gunpoint and stole over $550 in cash from the business. After taking the money, the two allegedly told the employees to run from the building. The workers reported to investigators that they heard gunshots as they fled. Responding officers found a discharged cartridge at the scene.

Ross and the other man ran from the hotel and got into Dobyne's SUV, which got stuck in a snowbank. Ross and the other man got out of the SUV and ran off. Brooklyn Center police found Dobyne in her SUV. Later that day, officers arrested Ross during a traffic stop in Minneapolis. They found him carrying a handgun that was fired in the hotel.

In October, Dobyne pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting interference with commerce by robbery. Sentencing hearings for Ross and Dobyne have yet to be scheduled, prosecutors say.

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