Prison for teen who along with cousins terrorized Twin Cities carjacking victim for hours

An 18-year-old has received a term of nearly 3½ years for joining with two of his cousins and driving a man around the Twin Cities in his own car while trying to drain his bank accounts and threatening to kill him during the hours-long carjacking.

Barry Shinaul Jr., of Columbia Heights, was sentenced Thursday in Anoka County District Court after pleading guilty to first-degree robbery in connection with the carjacking in Columbia Heights on Feb. 14, 2023, during what the victim thought was a meetup for him to buy a smartphone via Facebook Marketplace.

With credit for the 1½ years in jail since his arrest, Shinaul is expected to serve the first 1¼ years of his term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

T’Shawn T. Palton, 22, of Minneapolis, was sentenced last fall in U.S. District Court to a nine-year sentence while co-defendant and brother Jamal T. Funchess, 19, also of Minneapolis, was given a term of 8⅓ years after he admitted to armed carjacking.

Federal prosecutors said in a court filing that Shinaul’s actions included him “bringing the gun to the carjacking, pistol-whipping the victim [and] repeatedly threatening the victim with violence, including murder.”

According to court documents in state and federal court stemming from the carjacking:

Palton, Funchess and Shinaul posted an advertisement on Facebook Marketplace purportedly to sell an iPhone for $250. The victim responded and agreed to meet in a Columbia Heights apartment building parking lot near NE. University and 40th avenues, where Shinaul pointed a handgun at their “randomly chosen victim,” then hit him with the weapon.

Shinaul, masked and brandishing a loaded gun, ordered the man to the backseat of his Kia and drove off with Palton and Funchess, also masked.

They drove around the Twin Cities for three hours, holding their victim at gunpoint and demanding he surrender his cellphone, wallet, credit cards and banking information.

They attempted to withdraw money from gas stations in north Minneapolis and St. Paul using his cards and stole $40 from his accounts but failed to drain large sums from his Cash App, Venmo or PayPal accounts.

Toward the end of the ordeal, the three openly talked about killing him. Eventually, they dropped him on a road in St. Paul and left with his car as he ran to a gas station in Lilydale to call police.

Later that evening, the man helped law enforcement track down his phone using the Find My iPhone feature, watching the locator stop at an Embassy Suites in Bloomington. Police found his car in the hotel lot, while the phone locator placed it inside the hotel.

Hotel staff said they saw three people matching the descriptions provided by the victim, and also identified a woman with them. Shinaul, who was 17 years old at the time yet was prosecuted as an adult, soon approached officers and said he was with her. Police found a loaded revolver in his pants and found upon arrest he was wearing the victim’s Apple watch.

Officers in the parking lot arrested Palton after a brief foot chase outside, finding the stolen wallet along the way. Funchess was found in the front seat of another car in the parking lot and apprehended.