Sitting in an orange jailhouse jumpsuit with his head bowed, the elderly Twin Cities businessman who invented the Sleep Number bed and later spent millions of other people's money trying to convert coal to natural gas learned Thursday he'll likely spend the rest of his life in jail.
A federal judge in St. Paul sentenced Robert Walker, who was convicted in March of defrauding investors in Bixby Energy of $57 million over a decade, to 25 years in prison.
His attorney said the 72-year-old, who started the successful bed maker Select Comfort before embarking on Bixby, "will probably not have a fresh breath of air again" as a free man.
"I apologize to my family, my friends and my investors," Walker said softly before the sentence was read.
Then, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson sternly delivered her ruling.
"You caused devastating, lifelong injuries to hundreds of faithful investors," Nelson said. "You're barely accepting any responsibility for this destructive activity. You don't seem to feel remorse for the extraordinary pain felt by so many people. You're someone who cares more about themself."
After a seven-week trial, a federal jury convicted Walker on charges of fraud, tax evasion, witness tampering and conspiracy for repeatedly misleading investors about the prospects for success of his alternative energy company, Bixby.
About 1,800 people invested in the company, which Walker co-founded in 2001. The business was originally focused on producing corn-burning stoves to heat homes. When that business collapsed because of high corn prices, Walker turned Bixby's focus to developing a coal-to-gas technology. But it never worked.
