A Minneapolis man who crashed a stolen car into a St. Paul house in July has been sentenced to 17 months in prison on that case and five years on an unrelated gun charge.

The prison terms given Friday to 38-year-old Lowell Higginsbay, whose last name is spelled Higgins-Bey in some court records, will be served concurrently.

The car case began with a 2 a.m. July 26 call to police about a Chevrolet Traverse that was stolen near Loring Park in Minneapolis when a sleeping man was pulled from the vehicle and shot and seriously injured.

Lowell Kevin Higginsbay (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

The victim’s phone in the Traverse was tracked to St. Paul, where a police officer initiated a traffic stop of the Traverse near University Avenue and Dale Street. The driver, later identified as Higginsbay, sped away on Sherburne Avenue before making a wide turn at Mackubin Street and striking a house.

The driver kept going, running at least five stop signs before crashing into a tree at Victoria Street and Blair Avenue. The crash broke the rib of a 24-year-old woman riding in the back seat, according to the criminal complaint.

Police found a small bag of fentanyl in Higginsbay’s pocket. He told officers he’d drunk alcohol and used heroin and methamphetamine that night.

Higginsbay agreed to plead guilty to felony criminal vehicular operation as prosecutors dropped additional charges. He never was charged in connection with the carjacking, court records show.

The other Ramsey County case Higginsbay was sentenced on Friday was a July 2023 felony charge of ammunition possession by a person who was ineligible because of a violent crime conviction.

At sentencing Friday, Higginsbay was given credit for just over a year already served in custody.

He has one open felony case in Anoka County where he’s accused of burglarizing Rapids Liquor in Coon Rapids, Boost Mobile in Spring Lake Park and Capra’s Sporting Goods in Blaine in May 2020.

He has prior felony convictions for domestic assault in 2020 and 2015 and violating a no-contact order in 2017.

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