Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 10 years for third robbery

IOWA CITY -- Jovon T. Ellis Jr. pushed a Kennedy High School student into her vehicle parked in the school’s parking lot in 2020, shoving a gun into her side and demanding her cellphone.

Ellis, then 18, already had a pending robbery case from an incident in 2019 when he planned to meet three people in Delaney Park in Cedar Rapids to smoke marijuana and instead pointed a gun at them and stole their cellphones and $200.

He pleaded to lesser charges of first-degree theft and going armed with intent in the Cedar Rapids’ school parking lot robbery, and to extortion in the park robbery.

During sentencing, Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, who was then-first assistant prosecutor, asked for a 15-year sentence because he was concerned about Ellis’ violent behavior — using a gun “to get what he wanted.” Ellis also “victimized” the high school student while he was on pretrial release in extortion case, he noted.

Sixth Judicial District Judge Fae Hoover sentenced Ellis to 15 years. But after Ellis served only 19 months, the Iowa Board of Parole allowed him to go on work release in June 2022. He was sent to a residential facility where he could come and go for work and other approved leaves.

Five months later, on Nov. 28, 2022, Ellis, 21 at the time, was charged with robbing two men in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Coralville by pointing a gun at them and making them “dump the data” on their cellphones before handing then over to him.

Ellis fled but was arrested shortly after the incident. He had ditched the gun but told officers where to find it — a CO2 BB gun — similar to ones used in his previous robberies. He was charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree theft.

He pleaded to the lesser charge of first-degree theft in May, and was sentenced Monday by 6th Judicial District Judge Liz Dupuich to 10 years in prison.

Dupuich pointed out Ellis’ “significant” criminal history, which included violent offenses of an assault in 2019 and the 2020 extortion, first-degree theft and going armed with intent. The judge also noted that Ellis committed the most recent robbery last year while on work release.

She ran the 10-year sentence with his other prison time he’s serving at Clarinda Correctional Facility. When Ellis’ work release status was revoked, he was sent back to prison. His possible parole release date on the theft conviction from 2020 is April 2027, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections. His next review will be in 12 months.

Ellis, during sentencing, said he thought it a “good plea agreement.” No victims attended the hearing or submitted victim impact statements.

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