A 22-year-old northern Minnesota man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the late-night stabbing and kidnapping of a man who was left bound in the road but managed to roll out of the way of the perpetrators' pickup speeding toward him.
Sheldon J. Armstrong III, of Cass Lake, was sentenced Monday in Cass County District Court after a jury convicted him in January of first-degree attempted murder, kidnapping, second-degree assault and theft of a motor vehicle.
Also charged in the attack was Travis R. Paquette, 18, of Bemidji, Minn. Paquette pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and robbery. He is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
According to the prosecution:
About 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 1, sheriff's deputies met up with a man at a home who said the attack occurred after he had driven to a Cass Lake gas station, at Armstrong's request, to meet up with him.
The man said he met Armstrong and Paquette, believed to be brothers, and drove them to "a rural location" to carry out a purchase of marijuana. As the three walked down a trail, Armstrong tackled the victim, and Paquette stabbed him in the throat.
Armstrong and Paquette then bound the man's wrists, loaded him back into his truck and drove away. They stopped, placed the man in the middle of the road and raced toward him, but he rolled out of the way.
Paquette was arrested about two blocks away while walking from the vehicle.
