'Ninja robber' Ahkinea Cox sentenced to 25 years in prison
Jun. 7, 2013 |
Ahkinea Cox, aka Lil Bit / Johnson County Sheriff's Office
Written by
Josh O’Leary
Iowa City Press-Citizen
The prolonged legal saga of Ahkinea Cox, which began with a string of robberies in 2008 that earned him the nickname “the ninja robber,” came to its end in Johnson County District Court with his sentencing Friday.
Following a plea deal struck last month, Judge Mitchell Turner sentenced Cox to a maximum of 25 years in prison, under which he will serve a mandatory term of at least 17 1/2 years.
Cox, 33, received 25 years after pleading guilty to first-degree robbery for robbing of a Gasby’s gas station on Gilbert Street in November 2008. He also received a pair of 10-year sentences for second-degree robbery for his part in the holdups of Hy-Vee and Delimart that same year. Cox will serve the terms concurrently, with a 70 percent mandatory minimum term.
Cox’s court-appointed lawyer, Mark Meyer, filed a constitutional challenge to the mandatory sentencing provision Friday, arguing that such provisions are often enacted by the legislature in reaction to a single tragic event to show that lawmakers are “tough on crime.” Meyer said that encroaches on his client’s constitutional rights because none of the specific factors in Cox’s case can then be taken into account in the sentencing, particularly his “rotten social upbringing.”
Cox’s mother abandoned him at a young age, his father was a crack addict and Cox was an abused child, Meyer said.
Meyer also said Cox’s limited intelligence should be taken into account: “All the experts agree Mr. Cox has the intellectual capabilities of a child, essentially.”
Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey said Cox must be being treated like anyone else convicted of such offenses.
“We think it’s important Mr. Cox be incarcerated for the protection of the community,” she said.
Turner told Meyer the judicial branch has no authority to change the terms of a plea deal, other than to reject it, and he saw no reason to do so Friday.
Cox, a.k.a. Lil Bit, was caught in the act by police while robbing a Gasby’s in 2008 at knife point. Police then tied him to the pair of earlier robberies, including the Delimart holdup in which two men dressed in black, ninja-like attire robbed the clerk and a customer at gunpoint.
In 2010 a judge dismissed the charges, ruling that Cox did not receive a trial within one year as required, prosecutors had argued that the time taken to to perform a mental competency evaluation should have pushed that one-year mark back. The dismissal was later appealed and reversed, but Cox fled the state before he could face charges again. He was arrested in November 2011 in Dundee, Ill., on outstanding warrants.
Cox, who has been behind bars for 49 months over the past five years, according to Meyer, asked the judge whether his time served would be subtracted from the sentence. Turner said that would be a decision made by the Department of Corrections.
In addition to the prison sentence, Cox was ordered to pay $1,467 and $1,340 in restitution to Delimart and Hy-Vee.
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