Crime & Safety

Apple Valley Man Charged with Assaulting Dakota County Jail Inmate

Police say Kris Laymar Ewing—already facing robbery charges—assaulted another inmate when the man stepped in to separate Ewing and a third inmate during an argument about a brown-bag meal.

An Apple Valley man already facing a robbery charge has been charged with assaulting a fellow inmate at the Dakota County Jail in Hastings.

Kris Laymar Ewing, 22, was charged last week with third-degree assault, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

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Ewing has been in custody in the Dakota County Jail since July 25, when he was arrested on a charge of simple robbery, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

According to the latest complaint, Ewing and another jail inmate argued Sept. 2 about a brown-bag meal. The victim stepped in and separated them, offering to get Ewing food out of a vending machine if he would stop arguing with the other inmate. 

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Later, according to witnesses, Ewing came down a flight of stairs and “got in the victim’s face,” then punched him twice in the face with a closed fist.

The victim was treated for multiple sinus fractures and fractures around his eye, according to the complaint.

In the earlier complaint, Ewing is accused of robbing a man who told police that he arranged to meet a woman in an Apple Valley apartment after finding her ad for sexual services on Backpages.com. 

The man told officers that he went to the apartment and offered the woman $100 for sex. The woman walked away, leaving him in a darkened bedroom, and Ewing and two other men came into the room and reached into the victim’s pockets.

When the victim resisted, the three men pushed him against the wall and began to hit him, telling him to remove his shirt, shorts and hat and stand still, the victim told police.

The victim complied, and the three men asked him where his money and valuables were. One of the men had a small knife, and threatened to kill the victim if he didn’t hand over his money, according to the complaint. The armed man said, “I will kill you, [expletive],” and the three men took the victim’s phone and money and left.

The victim told police that he put his clothes back on, waited 15 minutes and then left the apartment through a bedroom window.

Police identified Ewing and one of the other men through Facebook photos and surveillance video from a gas station where the men and the female in the Backpages.com ad purchased gasoline with the $100 bill that the victim had given them, according to the complaint.

Ewing later admitted to police that he and the other two men “moved in on” the victim after he arrived at the apartment, and that they hid in the bathroom until the girl led him into the bedroom, the complaint says.

Ewing is being held on a $30,000 bond on the assault charge and an $80,000 bond on the robbery charge. He has omnibus hearings scheduled Oct. 3 and Oct. 22 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.


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