Derrick L. Tallman was sentenced Wednesday to 17 months for false imprisonment and 23 months for motor-vehicle theft after he and another man stole a pickup truck with a 5-year-old girl asleep in the back seat.
"I didn't mean to take no child," Tallman told Ramsey County District Judge Margaret (Peg) Marrinan. "I just wanted the car, the rims on the car. As soon as I knew she was in there, I found someplace to leave her."
Tallman and Dominic Jaworski stole the pickup, which had been left running, from the parking lot of the Liquor Barrel on West 7th Street in St. Paul about 9:45 p.m. May 30.
When the girl in the back seat woke up screaming, they left her in the yard of a home at Hwy. 61 and Birmingham Street. She was not injured.
Both Tallman and Jaworski pleaded guilty to the charges. Jaworski was given stayed sentences of 18 months and 17 months. Tallman's sentences will run concurrently. He will have to serve 15 1/3 months before he is eligible for release.
"Try to use your time wisely and turn yourself around if you can," Marrinan told Tallman as he left the courtroom.
PAT PHEIFER
