Violent carjacking spree nets prison term for Twin Cities man

A man who went on a violent robbery and carjacking spree in the Twin Cities has received a prison term of nearly six years.

Ricardo Rydell Walker Jr., 22, of St. Paul was sentenced in U.S. District Court this week after pleading guilty to unlawful gun possession and aiding and abetting carjacking in connection with stealing an SUV while pistol-whipping the driver on June 28, 2022.

Walker also admitted to aiding and abetting three other carjackings that took place from 2021 to mid-2022.

Before Walker was sentenced to roughly 5¾ years, defense attorney Matthew Deates said in a court filing that his client should receive a term of slightly more than four years.

“Ricardo Walker is a positive, warm, and caring 22-year-old man with so much potential,” Deates wrote. “Yet, he is also a product of his environment — an environment where his father was sent to prison for murder when he turned 6, which led to his mother and grandmother descending into alcoholism, and Mr. Walker having a front-row seat to the chronic beatings his mother endured from the men she brought around."

In a counter-filing, prosecutors said, “The type of brazen violence that Walker inflicted on unsuspecting victims must be firmly addressed. Walker’s conduct includes pistol-whipping, ripping purses off of shoulders, threatening to kill victims, pushing victims to the ground, and attempts to use victims’ credit cards.

“One victim … was hit while already on the ground. One had a gun pressed to his cheek. Another was chased out of his car before tripping and falling. When Walker was pursued, he fled police on multiple occasions.”

According to court records:

Walker was arrested in Maplewood on July 6, 2022, after police and Ramsey County deputies found him and accomplices sleeping in a different stolen car than the one he had carjacked six days earlier. Walker rammed a nearby squad car after being awakened, and fled onto public roads before hitting another vehicle. Police arrested Walker and others following a brief foot chase.

Police also found Walker in possession of a Springfield Armory Hellcat 9-millimeter handgun. After tracing the gun’s serial number, officers discovered it had been reported stolen in Minneapolis. Walker later told a detective he bought the gun from an unknown man in Minneapolis a day before his arrest.

Walker’s crime spree netted criminal charges in several counties before his case went federal. The June 2022 carjacking followed three violent robberies on June 28 that took place on the Augsburg and University of Minnesota campuses and at a West St. Paul apartment complex. According to charges, Walker and his accomplices pulled off another robbery in West St. Paul earlier on the morning of his eventual arrest.

His penchant for armed robbery began in February 2021, less than two months after he turned 18. Within a year, one criminal complaint read, officers said they were “well-acquainted” with Walker and at least one of his accomplices for “having been involved in numerous robberies/carjackings. [They] were known to display firearms and known to target expensive vehicles.”

In December 2021, Walker was civilly committed in Ramsey County District Court as mentally ill and chemically dependent. That put his criminal cases on hold as he entered the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center. He was then moved to a less restrictive sober house in St. Paul.