ST. CLOUD -- A man convicted in a drug deal turned robbery last spring has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Judge Frederick Grunke allowed for the upward departure from state guidelines because of aggravating factors in the case.

A Stearns County jury convicted 32-year-old Lynell Ellison on aiding and abetting first degree aggravated robbery and aiding and abetting second degree assault with a gun.

Ellison and another man had agreed to buy a large amount of marijuana from the victim last March. Records show when the two arrived at the victim’s home in southeast St. Cloud, they rushed the victim, pointed a gun at him and demanded to know “where the money and the safe were.”

The charging complaint says Ellison and the other unidentified man then took the victim’s iPhones, several hundred dollars in cash and a backpack.

Police later found Ellison with a large amount of cash hidden in his sleeve and arrested him on suspicion of robbery.

There’s no current information on the status of the other man involved.

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