For more than 26 years, Donald Allen Ellis bounced from the streets to county jail to prison cell, convicted of at least a half-dozen felonies, only to be freed and then continue a cycle of burglary and identity theft.
But it was the career criminal's astoundingly prolific habit of breaking into cars, stealing purses and using stolen credit cards that on Monday landed him a prison sentence as long as the criminal streak that left countless victims in his wake.
District Judge Kerry Meyer sentenced Ellis, 56, of West St. Paul, to 28 years in prison after a jury convicted him last month of two counts of identity theft, a trial in which the jury also branded him a career criminal, making him eligible for a longer sentence.
Prosecutors say it's one of the longest -- if not the longest -- sentences handed down in the state for property crimes. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said it was well-deserved for Ellis, whom he called "a thorn in the side of residents and police departments throughout the Twin Cities."
"He will be an old man if he gets out," Freeman said in a statement.
Ellis' attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Ellis was charged in February with conducting a large-scale crime operation that involved credit card fraud, theft and counterfeit checks. He was out on bail on similar ID theft charges when he was arrested last winter.
Prosecutors said he broke into cars across the metro and stole credit cards, then bought gift cards at department stores such as Target. He also recruited accomplices, they said, including drug abusers and homeless people, to buy the gift cards, so that if he was caught, he could claim he wasn't involved.
