A Lima teen has been sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison after having two trials for two separate armed robberies on Monday.
18-year-old Juan Freeman was facing aggravated robbery charges for incidents that happened at Hermies Party Shop and Little Caesars within hours of each other in January of 2020. Freeman decided to have the judge hear his cases versus having a jury trial and each incident was tried separately. During the trial, investigators and witnesses to the armed robberies testified in court.
Freeman and his partner, 18-year-old Na’zier Howard, were only able to get money at one of the locations, which totaled a little over $100. Judge Terri Kohlrieser deliberated and found him guilty on all charges and sentenced Freeman to 28 to 32 years in prison.
“You don’t strike me as someone who’s unintelligent and actually very sly and thoughtful and you decided to use those for negative purposes,” says Judge Terri Kohlrieser. “You clearly must be smart if you are on honor roll. To take those gifts that you have been given and turn them in a way that hurts people, I find that fairly disturbing.”
Howard has his jury trial set for July.
