GUILTY WI - Garth Velin, 20, shot to death in botched robbery, Superior, 30 Sept 2014

Blank's office on Friday formally charged the three remaining suspects in Tuesday's death of Garth Velin -- Teah Joan Phillips, 17, of Superior; Dallas Eugene Robinson, 18, of Duluth, Minn.; and Kane Michael Robinson, 20, of Duluth. Each made an appearance in Douglas County Circuit Court on a charge of party to felony murder.

On Thursday, Chance William Andrews, 17, of Superior was charged with felony murder, while Kyham Lavon Dunn, 20, of Duluth was charged as a party to the crime. They are in St. Louis County custody and must be extradited to Wisconsin to face the charges.

Click to expand...

According to the criminal complaint, Phillips told police the group went from Duluth to Superior Tuesday night and parked at the Subway on 38th Avenue East. Phillips said she did not know about a gun nor the robbery. She said she was told by Andrews that they were going to get some money.

Phillips said she was asked to knock on Velin's door using the ruse of telling Velin she was looking for a lost dog. Phillips said she did that and went back to the group. Police said Velin's picture was pulled up on Facebook to confirm Velin was the one who answered the door.

The complaint continues saying Andrews, Dunn and Dallas Robinson left the car to go to Velin's house. After a short period of time, Phillips said the three young men came back and said "it went bad"... Phillips said Andrews said he pulled a gun on Velin, but Velin grabbed the gun. Andrews said the gun accidently went off, shooting Velin.

Click to expand...

All five people charged in the death of a man during an attempted robbery in Superior appeared in court Monday.

The alleged shooter, 17-year-old Chance Andrews, was ordered to stand trial on a Douglas County charge of felony murder. He's scheduled to enter a plea on December 3rd...

All five suspects are charged with felony murder, even though they may have had small roles in the slaying.

Click to expand...

A Douglas County judge rejected a plea agreement that called for a lesser sentence for convicted killer Chance William Andrews, sending the Superior teenager to prison for 25 years on Thursday...

The sentence handed down by Glonek includes 20 years for Velin’s murder, three years for threatening the tow truck driver with a gun and two years for the prison battery. He also imposed 15 years of supervised release once Andrews is released.

Wisconsin is a truth-in-sentencing state, meaning that with time served, Andrews should not be released for another 24 years.

Click to expand...

Dallas Eugene Robinson, 20, will go to trial March 8 on charges of party to felony murder if he doesn’t hold up his end of a deal to testify against co-defendants Kyham Lavon Dunn, 21, in January and Teah Joan Phillips, 18, in February...

Dunn’s trial is set for Jan. 25 and Phillips’ trial begins Feb. 24...

A jury found Kane Robinson guilty of party to felony murder in June, and he was sentenced last month to 28 years — 18 years in prison and 10 years of extended supervision.

Click to expand...

At Telegram press time, jurors were left to ponder four days of arguments and testimony in search for the truth in the murder trial of Kyham Lavon Dunn, 21.

Thursday evening, they found Dunn not guilty...

The most hotly contested testimony was that of Robinson... He is also tapped to testify at Phillips’ trial next month. She is facing party to felony murder. Robinson’s own trial is scheduled for March.

Click to expand...

An 18-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to charges connected to the murder of a Superior man.

As part of a plea agreement, Teah Phillips entered a guilty plea Tuesday to one felony count of Party to the Crime of Attempted Armed Robbery for her role in the shooting death of 20-year-old Garth Velin in September of 2014.

Click to expand...

The family of Garth Velin were emotional in court Tuesday, speaking out against the plea agreement.

"Shame on Mr. Blank and Mr. Biller for working out a deal for that horrible, horrible girl. Innocent people don't plead guilty. Guilty people accept deals to shave off prison time. Garth's murderer did. Please do not let her do that too," said Deborah Velin, Garth's mother.

Click to expand...

Teah Joan Phillips accepted legal responsibility for her role in April when she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of party to attempted armed robbery.

But one thing she hasn't done, Douglas County Circuit Judge George Glonek said, is truly take responsibility for her decision to drive four accomplices to Superior's Allouez neighborhood, where a robbery attempt turned to murder on Sept. 30, 2014.

"I haven't heard any legitimate remorse for the role that she played in the conspiracy that ultimately resulted in the loss of Garth Velin's life," Glonek told a crowded courtroom on Monday afternoon.

The judge cited that fact in handing down a 20-year sentence to Phillips — a maximum term that includes 12½ years in prison and 7½ years of extended supervision.

Click to expand...

In a victim impact statement, Debbie Velin used scathing terms to refer to Phillips: "Horrible," "pure evil," a "monster."

"She deserves to rot in prison," the victim's mother told the judge. "She deserves to pay for what she did to Garth."

Click to expand...

In a statement immediately before receiving her sentence, repeatedly apologized to the Velin family and asked Glonek for the opportunity to avoid prison.

"I take responsibility for this," she said. "In the last two years, I'd have a lot of time to think. I've made a lot of bad decisions and I take responsibility for my actions. Going through those events has changed my life. It's made me realize the person I want to be."

Click to expand...

Douglas County District Attorney Dan Blank conceded to jurors Friday that Dallas Eugene Robinson and his co-defendants had no intention of causing harm to Garth Velin when they went to his Superior home in September 2014.

But all five defendants were involved in a conspiracy to rob the 20-year-old Superior man, who was killed after being shot in the chest, the prosecutor argued.

"It went bad," Blank told jurors. "It went criminally bad. It went murder bad."

A jury of seven women and five men agreed with the district attorney's version of the events, finding Robinson guilty of a party to felony murder charge after 3½ hours of deliberation Friday afternoon.

Click to expand...

Blank said his goal was to get "strong felony convictions" for all five defendants.

He has frequently described the case as one of the most difficult in his long career as district attorney — and acknowledged that there always will be "frustration and disappointment" in the outcome of the Dunn case — but said he's mostly satisfied in the end.

"This was a major success story for the victim, for the family and for the community — to have four good, solid convictions out of the five," Blank said. "It's taken a year and nine months to get there (and) it's been terribly taxing on everybody, especially the Velin family. This does feel like a reward for some good, hard work by all those behind the scenes."

Click to expand...

"It was two years ago yesterday we buried Garth," Debbie Velin told the court. The last time she saw her son's face was in "the coffin Dallas Robinson and his friends put him in."

Robinson will spend 18 years in prison and another 10 years on extended supervision, the same sentence handed to his brother, Kane Michael Robinson, 22, last year.

Debbie Velin asked Glonek to impose the maximum penalty on Robinson. When he heard the gunshots while standing outside Garth's house, she said, he chose to run instead of stay and call 911. After his arrest, he continued to change his story and lie.

"It doesn't appear Dallas Robinson cares about anything but himself," she said. "He's probably already working on his appeal."

Click to expand...

Robinson spoke before sentencing.

"I know you don't want to hear it," he told the Velin family on the opposite side of the courtroom. "I'm sorry to everyone on that side of the room."

After he heard Garth had been shot, Robinson said, he wished he'd done things differently and gone into the house to help.

"I know he was innocent and did not deserve to die," Robinson said. "He should be here today. I'm sorry for your loss."

Click to expand...

The Velins made 100 trips to the courthouse over the past two years for one reason.

"To get some justice for Garth," Paul Velin said. "We can't have him back, but at least we got him some justice."

He thanked law enforcement officers and the District Attorney's Office. In particular, he thanked Glonek for keeping the focus where it should be — on Garth and justice.

Click to expand...