The WATCH Chronicle – July 2016 2
The WATCH Chronicle
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – July 2016 2
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – July 2016 2
OFFENDER CHROLONOGY:
Antoine Lashawn Matthews
Antoine Lashawn Matthews, 28, came to WATCH’s attention in July 2015 when he was charged with promoting the prostitution of a minor. After pleading guilty to that charge as part of a plea agreement, he was charged with stalking the mother of his child over a two-week period. He has a long criminal history, including two previous domestic violence charges that were ultimately dismissed.
Matthews began his criminal history at the age of 15 with petty crimes, such as disorderly conduct, trespassing, underage drinking and minor narcotics violations. He was also charged numerous times with driving with a revoked license.
In 2006, Matthews was charged with misdemeanor credit card fraud, receiving a stayed sentence. His first felony arrest, at age 20, resulted in a guilty plea to possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree and attempted sale of a controlled substance in the third degree. He was sentenced to 60 days in the public workhouse.
On June 9, 2009, Matthews was charged in Hennepin County with domestic assault-bodily harm, and domestic assault-fear. Six months later, both charges were dismissed.
In January 2012, Matthews was charged in Hennepin County with one misdeameanor account of assault – intentionally inflicting or attempting to inflict bodily harm, as well as one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. The offense allegedly took place on Nov. 11, 2011, when a Plymouth police officer reported that she responded to a report of domestic assault outside a Walgreen’s store. There, Matthews’ girlfriend told the officer that during an argument outside Walgreen’s, Matthews slapped his girlfriend with an open
Antoine Lashawn Matthews
Inside:
Court Monitoring Bulletin: OFP Hearings 4
Sex Trafficking Update 6
hand, then got in his car and drove away. According to the complaint, the police officer observed red marks on the woman’s face.
Mathews pleaded not guilty to both charges. On July 19, 2012, the case was continued for one-year-probation with conditions including no same or similar offense, and on December 14, 2013, the charges were dismissed.
In October 2014, Matthews was back in a Hennepin County courtroom after being charged with a misdemeanor count of theft. He was sentenced to 90 days in the Hennepin County workhouse; all but four of those days were stayed for one year.
On July 28, 2015, Matthews faced a felony charge in Hennepin County of promoting prostitution of an individual under 18 years old. According to a criminal complaint, officers a week earlier had arrived at an apartment building in Minneapolis in search of a runaway 16-year-old girl. They found her in an apartment, along with Matthews. The victim later reported that she had run away from a group home, and Matthews had forced her engage in prostitution after meeting some people who had brought her to him. The victim said Matthews took photos of her to place in ads posted on the internet, then moved her to different Minneapolis apartments where she had sex with various men for money. She stated that Matthews made her give him the money she received. When she once said she wanted to leave, he allegedly told her she was his “bitch now.” At the time police found the victim, she said she had been with Matthews for two weeks.
According to the complaint, authorities later found text messages on Matthews’ phone linking him to the victim, as well as several backpage.com ads involving the victim that used an IP address linked to Matthews’ phone.
On March 18, 2016, Matthews pleaded guilty to the felony charge as part of a plea agreement. The following month, on April 28, Matthews was taken into custody and charged with one felony count of engaging in a pattern of stalking in connection with incidents that took place beginning April 11. According to a criminal complaint, a woman, identified as S.M., said she was the mother of Matthews’s one-year-old child and told officers she had obtained an order of protection against him in November 2015. S.M. told officers Matthews had called her several times in violation of the order, and on April 11, called and threatened to kill her and then himself, saying he would go to her workplace. The following day, Matthews allegedly sent her a video of himself holding a semi-automatic pistol in which he warned her not to make her mad, and called her again on April 16.
S.M. told officers that Matthews had previously assaulted her, including one incident in which he pushed her downstairs when she was seven months’ pregnant.
The victim said Matthews took photos of her to place in ads posted on the internet, then moved her to different Minneapolis apartments where she had sex with various men for money.
On May 10, Matthews was sentenced on the charge of promoting prostitution of a minor. His attorney argued that he was a product of his family history; his mother was a prostitute, and he had no father. The attorney also argued that he accepted responsibility for his actions and was “very remorseful.” The prosecutor argued for a 150-month commitment, saying he couldn’t support probation in light of the recent stalking charge. In the end, Judge Toddrick Barnette sentenced Matthews to 365 days in the workhouse, and stayed a 180-month prison sentence for five years. This was a dispositional departure from sentencing guidelines; in his report to the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission, Judge Barnette cited Matthews’s remorse for his actions as a reason for his departure.
On May 18, Matthews was back in court for his sentencing hearing on the stalking charge, to which he had pleaded guilty on May 10. In another dispositional departure, Judge Barnette imposed a five-year stay of execution for a prison term of 18 months, consecutive to his previous sentence. According to his lawyer, Matthews again took responsibility for his actions.
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His attorney argued that he was a product of his family history; his mother was a prostitute, and he had no father.
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – July 2016 2
WATCH 612-341-2747
The WATCH Chronicle – July 2016 2
WATCH 612-341-2747