A Minneapolis man will spend 30 years in prison for robbing two Cedar-Riverside neighborhood stores last spring and fatally shooting a clerk.

Marlow R. Carson, 31, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul in connection with the holdup on April 27 of the West Bend Furniture store that left dead Abdifatah H. Mohamed, 40, who was also known as Liban Osman Baqare.

Carson, who pleaded guilty in December to robbery and possession of ammunition by a felon, stuck a handgun under a plexiglass barrier on the counter and demanded money at the store in the 400 block of S. Cedar Avenue.

When Carson attempted to get behind the counter, Mohamed tried to keep Carson out. Carson shot Mohamed in the chest before fleeing in a car.

Mohamed was pronounced dead at HCMC.

Carson was arrested the next day while possessing what prosecutors have described as "a privately made firearm," which he used to kill the clerk at the store, which also sells cellphones and does money transfers.

Store owner Hassan Shire, who was inside the business at the time of the shooting, told the Star Tribune the next day that he had known Mohamed for about 20 years. He said Mohamed was there to pitch in and was not a regular employee.

Senior U.S. District Judge Donovan W. Frank also sentenced Carson to three years of supervised release.

Mohamed's survivors include a wife and four children, who were visiting Uganda at the time of the shooting.

Carson also has pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court in connection with the deadly holdup to second-degree murder, aggravated robbery and illegal possession of a firearm.

Sentencing in those charges is scheduled for March 29. The defense and prosecution have agreed that any prison time in this case will be served concurrently with his federal sentence.

Court records show that Carson has a criminal history in Minnesota that also includes felony convictions for first-degree robbery, drug dealing and drug possession.