MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A jury has convicted a 48-year-old man in the violent near-fatal stabbing of a woman at a Minneapolis parking ramp last spring, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The jury, however, acquitted Robert John Meyers of a second charge, attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct and could not reach a verdict on a charge of attempted kidnapping. Prosecutors intent to seek 240 months in prison for the first-degree conviction. The Minnesota Sentence Guidelines recommendation is 168 months in prison.
“This man is a menace and has been for much of his adult life,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said. “We will argue to the court that he should be put in prison for a long time. Our initial hope was that he would be put away for life on the attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. We thought we had enough evidence to convict on that charge, but the jury saw it differently.”
According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, Meyers came up behind a woman in a downtown Minneapolis parking ramp and put a knife to her throat. Meyers, dressed in a suit and tie, told the woman they were going for a ride.
The woman screamed, bit Meyers finger and kicked him until he left her. When she eventually got into her car, the victim noticed that she had been stabbed.
“He didn’t get to finish what he started,” assistant Hennepin County Attorney Sarah Hilleren said. “It wasn’t because he didn’t plan. He wore a suit and tie so he would blend into the downtown business crowd. He carried a computer bag with a hunting knife, red gloves and condoms inside.”
The victim barely survived. The knife went about 10 inches into her body, through her liver and into her adrenal gland, Hilleren told the jury. She needed surgery for a punctured liver.
Meyers sentencing date is not yet available.
