Rochester Man Sentenced For Knife Incident at Rochester Store

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - An Olmsted County judge has granted a downward departure from state sentencing guidelines by placing a Rochester man on probation for five years for a felony assault conviction.

23-year-old Shawn Turner earlier admitted to a second-degree assault charge for an incident involving a knife and a local business back in June. In exchange for his guilty plea, a first-degree aggravated robbery charge and a misdemeanor theft charge were dismissed.

According to the criminal complaint, Turner was accused of stealing an item from a store and then threatening the store clerk with a knife. The court document says Rochester Police responded to the business in southeast Rochester on the evening of June 6 to investigate a report of a robbery.

The store employee told the officers a man had entered the store and took an empty laser-level display case without paying for it. The charges alleged that Turner then pulled out a pocketknife and threatened to stab the employee when he was confronted about the theft.

The responding officers were able to locate Turner at a nearby store a short time later and he was arrested without incident.