A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for stealing from a woman and robbing two others at gunpoint — making one drive from Arden Hills to Minneapolis — on three days in 2022.

Raphael Raymond Nunn, 58, was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in St. Paul after a jury in May found him guilty of kidnapping, bank fraud and identity theft.

Raphael Raymond Nunn (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Prosecutors asked Judge Eric Tostrud to give Nunn a 27-year sentence, calling Nunn a “relentless offender” and “life-long fraudster whose calculated deceit has left a wake of financial devastation spanning nearly three decades.”

Minnesota court records show that Nunn has three convictions for auto theft, two for check forgery and one for financial transaction card fraud.

According to federal court documents:

Nunn was wearing a mask and gloves and armed with a black handgun when he approached a 61-year-old woman who had just parked her 2003 Lexus in an underground parking garage at her work in the 3900 block of Northwood Drive in Arden Hills just before 7:30 a.m. Sept. 13, 2022.

When the woman got out of her car, Nunn approached her with the gun. After the woman grabbed the barrel of the gun, he pushed her to the ground and then forced her back into the vehicle at gunpoint.

He ordered her to drive to an ATM at Wells Fargo at 2600 E. Franklin in Minneapolis. There, he forced her to withdraw cash using her debit card until she reached her limit of $1,000. He then forced her to call her bank and get a PIN number to withdraw cash from her credit card. He also took $30 from her wallet. He then ordered her to drive to Matthews Park at 2438 27th Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

Once at the park, he told her to get out of the vehicle and leave her key fob and phone in the car. He told her she could find her vehicle at the other side of the park after he was gone. When the woman walked to her vehicle, he was gone and she called the police.

Video surveillance cameras showed Nunn getting out of her car and walking to Cedar Food & Grill at 2600 Cedar Ave. in Minneapolis. Once inside the store, he bought a bottle of soda and took off his hood. He was no longer wearing the mask, which he had discarded during his walk. Four days later he returned to the store in his own vehicle, which allowed authorities to identify him as the suspect.

He was arrested Sept. 22, 2022, in Minneapolis. A search found evidence of the kidnapping and two previous crimes that year.

Law enforcement linked Nunn to the robbery of a woman in a Target parking lot in Hudson, Wis., on Jan. 8. Using a black handgun, Nunn threatened to kill the woman if she refused to hand over her purse. He then used her bank cards to make several purchases in St. Paul, totaling about $180.

Nunn also was tied to the theft of a woman’s backpack, which included her debit card, at Twin Cities Orthopedics in Oak Park Heights on Aug. 9. He then used the card to make $430 in fraudulent transactions in Lake Elmo and Oak Park Park Heights.

“Nunn inflicted not just financial losses, but emotional and psychological scars, as his victims were left with a lasting sense of vulnerability and fear,” federal prosecutors wrote in a document to the judge. “His pattern of criminal behavior demonstrates a lack of empathy, exemplifying the very reasons our justice system categorizes his actions as serious offenses requiring decisive punishment.”

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