Domestic assaults, weapons and drug possession, fleeing police among recent felony charges filed 

The following criminal charges have been filed by the Hennepin County District Attorney in the Fourth Judicial District.

Theft

Matthew Richard Kroiss, 33, of Shoreview, is charged with felony theft of property valued at more than $1,000 and less than $5,000 in a May 23 incident at Scheels in the Eden Prairie Center.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police responded to a theft report at Scheels, 8301 Flying Cloud Drive. Upon arrival, officers spoke with the store’s loss prevention staff. They reported that a man walked into the store and picked seven Ping i525 golf clubs valued at $1,312. An employee boxed the clubs for the man, who then left the store without paying for them.

Store employees told police that the man drove off in a silver Nissan Rogue and identified the license plate numbers.

Police identified the registered owner as Kroiss, who is a suspect in other Scheels thefts. Officers identified the vehicle arriving at a Shoreview address. Kroiss was wearing clothing identified by Scheels’ staff members and was accompanied by a woman.

Officers later returned to the Shoreview address but Kroiss and the vehicle were gone. They spoke to the female passenger, identified as Kroiss’ mother, who identified him as the suspect.

Kroiss was not in custody as of June 9 and a summons has been issued for him to appear in Hennepin County District Court.

If convicted, Kroiss faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and/or a $10,000 fine.

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Michael Christian Anderson, 24, of Blaine, is charged with vehicle theft stemming from a May 21 incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie officers were dispatched to the area of Plaza Drive and Valley View Road at about 5 p.m. to investigate a license plate reader hit indicating a stolen vehicle was in the area. Officers received information that the vehicle was a Dodge pickup truck.

Officers located the vehicle in the Menards parking lot. Anderson was apprehended after exiting the vehicle and trying to walk away from the parking lot. Anderson initially denied driving the stolen pickup and provided false identification information.

Officers viewed a Menards surveillance video and identified Anderson. They also discovered that he had an active felony arrest warrant.

Anderson was arrested. During a search following his arrest, officers found the keys to the stolen vehicle on Anderson. They also observed that the driver’s side window was broken out and the vehicle contained several fake I.D. cards, a large quantity of garage door openers, and several tools.

Officers confirmed with the vehicle’s owner that it had been stolen and that Anderson did not have permission to take it. The vehicle is valued at approximately $1,000 or more.

Anderson was being held on $5,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and/or a fine of $10,000.

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Ashley Nicole Smith, 32, of Eden Prairie, is charged with theft stemming from a Nov. 13, 2021, incident in Eden Prairie. 

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie officers responded to Costco on a report of a female shoplifter. The suspect, later identified as Smith, left in a white Honda HR-V, which police learned was registered to an individual at her address.

Costco staff informed police that Smith concealed several electronic items under coats in her cart and left without paying for them. She bypassed the employee checking receipts by pushing through a group of employees. As she exited the first set of doors, she was approached by another manager. At that point, Smith abandoned her cart and fled. The value of the stolen items is $1,304.

Law enforcement identified Smith using surveillance video and a photo.

Smith has been summoned to appear in Hennepin County District Court. If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

Domestic assault

Lance Alexander Elem, 28, of Hopkins, is charged with a felony count of domestic assault by strangulation and a second gross misdemeanor account of a subsequent domestic abuse violation stemming from a May 28 incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police officers responded to a residence on a report of a domestic assault.

Officers spoke with the adult victim who reported that she and Elem were at her home and had engaged in a struggle. She fell, leaving her bleeding from the scalp. She told police that Elem got on top of her, put his hands around her neck and squeezed for five seconds resulting in her struggling for breath.

Eventually, the victim was able to escape and Elem left the house. Officers located Elem, who told them that he and the victim had fought and accused the victim of strangling him and that he had pushed her away, causing her to fall. He denied strangling her.

Police later learned that Elem had a previous misdemeanor in 2015 resulting from violating a domestic abuse no contact order.

Elem was arrested and was being held in lieu of $30,000 bail. If convicted of the first count of strangulation, he faces a maximum sentence of three years and/or a $5,000 fine. If convicted on the second count, a subsequent domestic assault conviction, he faces a maximum of one year and/or a $3,000 fine.

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Justin Allen Ebba, 35, of Eden Prairie, is charged with one count of felony domestic violence by strangulation stemming from a May 10 incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police officers were dispatched to a Pioneer Trail address. Upon arriving, police met Ebba who had a cut on his right middle finger and told them he had been bitten by the victim, his ex-girlfriend.

The victim told police that she and Ebba had been in a relationship for about 1½ years and that they had argued that night and he had told her to move out of his house. The victim said she packed some things, including a phone she purchased but had been used by Ebba. She said he became angry and tried to take the phone away. She said Ebba pushed her then wrapped his right arm around her neck, strangling her briefly.

The victim said she was able to get away but Ebba wrestled her to the ground and strangled her again to the point that she could not breathe. She acknowledged biting his finger causing him to release her.

Ebba was arrested and is being held on $40,000 bail. If convicted he faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. He also was charged with a misdemeanor count of domestic assault for causing fear of immediate bodily harm or death.

Drug possession

Sharmarke Mahammed Muse, 31, of Crystal, is charged with one count of fifth-degree felony drug possession stemming from an Oct. 15, 2021, incident at an Eden Prairie Walgreens.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police responded to a report of prescription fraud at Walgreens, 8240 Flying Cloud Drive. Store employees reported that Muse had dropped off a prescription on Oct. 14 and would be contacted the next day to pick it up.

The pharmacist told police that the prescription for promethazine syrup was typically not filled at this pharmacy. The pharmacist contacted the clinic identified on the prescription and was informed that they had no record of Muse. They also told police that the medical provider identified on the prescription no longer worked at the clinic.

Police arrested Muse when he arrived to pick up the prescription. During a search of Muse, police found a bottle of promethazine with codeine syrup, amphetamine and dextroamphetamine pills of various dosses, alprazolam pills of various doses, and an unidentified pill.

The pharmacist provided police with numerous additional suspected fraudulent prescriptions successfully filled by Muse since August 2019 at a St. Louis Park Walgreens. Police are investigating those prescriptions and if Muse had valid prescriptions for the pills found during the search.

Muse has been issued a summons to appear in Hennepin County District Court. If convicted, Muse faces a maximum sentence of five years and/or fines of up to $10,000.

Violation of no contact order

Joseph Paul Harrop, 30, of Richfield, is charged with violating a no contact order within 10 years of a previous domestic violence-related offense, a felony.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police responded to a report of a no contact order violation on May 24. Harrop was identified by a witness claiming that he visited the victim at a home on Pioneer Trail in violation of a no contact order following his conviction of domestic assault in Scott County.

Three convictions in March 2022 relating to domestic assault and violating no contact orders elevated the May incident to a felony charge.

Harrop was in custody and being held in lieu of $30,000 bail. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years and/or a $10,000 fine.

Possession of firearm

Jerel Valdez Martin, 33, of N. St. Paul, is charged with felony possession of a firearm stemming from a May 7 incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

An Eden Prairie officer on routine patrol near I-494 and Prairie Center Drive observed a vehicle with two occupants, neither wearing seat belts.

After initiating a traffic stop, the officer observed both occupants sitting on their buckled seat belts. He also noticed that the front seat passenger appeared to attempt to conceal something. The front seat passenger, eventually identified as Martin, initially lied about his identity.

The officer then asked and received the driver’s consent to search the vehicle. The officer found a 9mm Glock handgun with a round in the chamber. The handgun had no serial number or other markings.

Martin was arrested and transported to the Hennepin County Jail. He also was found in possession of a controlled substance, which he swallowed. He was taken to the hospital and later returned to jail.

Martin is prohibited from possessing firearms due to a prior conviction for a felony crime of violence. He was convicted of first-degree aggravated robbery in February 2008. He also has two active cases in which he is charged with illegally possessing a firearm.

Martin was in custody in lieu of $150,000 bail. If convicted he faces a minimum sentence of five years and up to 15 years in prison and/or a $30,000 fine.

Fleeing police

Angelo Maurice Wagner, 33, of Minneapolis, is charged with fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and driving under the influence of a controlled substance stemming from an April 21 incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle on Highway 169 for failure to have a rear bumper and swerving. The vehicle did not stop after officers activated their emergency lights and sirens. The vehicle swerved and attempted to drive around the squad cars.

Officers saw the suspect, identified as Wagner, throwing a baggie containing a white substance out of the car.

Wagner accelerated to 90 miles per hour, and officers initiated a disabling maneuver to stop the car. Wagner was then arrested.

A blood sample tested by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension revealed that amphetamine and methamphetamine, both Schedule II controlled substances, were present.

Wagner was in custody without bail. If convicted on the felony fleeing count, Wagner faces three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. He was also charged with failing to have a rear bumper, a misdemeanor.

Drug possession

Sharda Denyce Grew, 33, of Eden Prairie, is charged with fifth-degree drug possession stemming from a July 28, 2021 incident.

According to the police complaint:

An Eden Prairie officer stopped a vehicle at Anderson Lakes Parkway and Highway 169 in Edina. The officer observed the vehicle swerve and nearly hit the curb. The vehicle then drove through a red light.

Grew, the driver, was observed with watery, glassy and bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol. She failed field sobriety tests and registered .09 blood alcohol content at the police department less than 20 minutes after being stopped.

Police also found a white substance in her purse that later was confirmed by the BCA as methamphetamine.

Grew has been summoned to appear in Hennepin County District Court. She was also charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol and misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol with a .08 concentration within two hours. If convicted of the felony drug possession count, Grew faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

Possession of burglary tools

Cole George LeRoy Michelson, 25, of Brooklyn Center, is charged with felony possession of burglary or theft tools stemming from an Oct. 21, 2021, incident in Eden Prairie.

According to the police complaint:

Eden Prairie police officers responded to Target in the Eden Prairie Center for a theft in progress. A Target employee told police he had observed a suspect he recognized from internal alerts. He told officers that the suspect was observed using an unidentified tool to open security cases and removing video games.

The employee said that the suspect placed the video games in his jacket and left the store without paying for them.

Officers arrived and arrested Michelson as he left the store. Officers recovered a stack of magnets that the employee confirmed can be used to open security cases. Officers located the videos in the jacket that Michelson dropped. Officers viewed store surveillance video to confirm that Michelson was using the magnets to open security cases.

The Target employee provided information that Michelson was involved in thefts at Target stores in Brooklyn Park, Crystal, St. Louis Park, Knollwood, and St. Cloud in October and November of 2021.

The total loss from all of the thefts is estimated to be $5,579. Michelson faces additional charges for thefts at two other Targets and Best Buy in 2021 and 2022.

A nationwide warrant has been issued for Michelson’s arrest. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.