photo by: Colorado Department of Corrections

Elmoses Blackwell

A man suspected in a string of armed robberies last year in Lawrence — including one during which he committed a sex crime at gunpoint — has been convicted.

Elmoses Blackwell, 28, of Denver, was scheduled to go to trial this month in Douglas County District Court on numerous felony charges.

Instead, on Tuesday he pleaded no contest and was convicted of one count of aggravated criminal sodomy and two counts of robbery, according to Jill Spurling, trial assistant for the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office. Remaining charges were dismissed under the plea deal.

Blackwell’s violent crime spree spanned just more than a week in 2017, in late May and early June.

His face tattoos — described by victims as including an “angel wing” inked under both eyes — helped police link him to the crimes, according to a police affidavit filed in one of the cases.

In connection with a home invasion robbery and sex crime on May 28, 2017, at an apartment on Emery Road, Blackwell was initially charged with aggravated criminal sodomy, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary, all felonies. 

In that case, three men reportedly barged into the apartment and demanded of a resident and his 18-year-old girlfriend, “where is the weed,” the Journal-World previously reported. The victims told police they were forced into a bedroom, where the suspect with the face tattoos pointed his gun at them and ordered the woman to perform a sex act on her boyfriend.

The suspects fled after stealing guns, TVs, cellphones, money, keys and cars.

In connection with a string of armed robberies reported on June 6 and 7, 2017, Blackwell was charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of aggravated burglary and kidnapping, all felonies. He also was charged with driving a vehicle to flee or elude police, a misdemeanor.

The June incidents began with an armed home invasion and robbery in the 1700 block of West 24th Street, where Blackwell allegedly threatened a 13-year-old with a gun.

The next day, an armed robbery was reported about 5:30 p.m. in a parking lot at 23rd and Louisiana streets, and that was followed by other reports of an “incident” involving a gun a few minutes later in the 1900 block of Rhode Island Street and a disturbance with a gun seconds after that near 15th Street and Haskell Avenue.

After a brief car and foot pursuit, police captured Blackwell and two other suspects. A fourth suspect was arrested later.

Blackwell was charged in the June robbery spree right away, with prosecutors noting he had past convictions including robbery in Colorado and requesting $175,000 bond. He was charged in the May robbery and sex assault months later, in October 2017, with his bond in that case set at $125,000.

Blackwell is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 21 before Judge Kay Huff.

Editor’s note: This story has been edited to correct the description of Blackwell’s sex crime.