Maxey won’t face charges in robbery case

Kim Smith

Monday, March 13, 2000 | 10:58 a.m.

A District Court judge Friday dismissed burglary and robbery charges against a teenager sentenced to life in prison for murder last month after prosecutors said they were satisfied with the life sentence.

Kenshawn Maxey, 19, was charged with four crimes in a March 1998 robbery of a convenience store near Eastern Avenue and Bonanza Road. However, before he was arrested in connection with that case, he was arrested on murder charges for a bar robbery gone bad.

According to court testimony, Maxey and his best friend, Lashawn Levi, 18, decided to rob the O'Aces Bar and Grill on Rainbow Boulevard in May 1998 in part because Maxey's girlfriend was pregnant and he needed money.

As another friend, Artis Moore, 20, waited in the car, the two men entered the bar with guns and ordered the patrons to the floor. Levi and the bartender began struggling, and Maxey, trying to help his friend, ended up killing both of them.

Maxey, who was arrested outside the bar, was given life without the possibility of parole last month. Moore, too, is serving a no-parole life sentence.

On Friday prosecutors asked District Judge Donald Mosley to dismiss the convenience store charges, essentially saying the life sentence in the bar robbery is sufficient.

However, Deputy Special Public Defender Kristina Wildeveld said evidence exists that clears her client in the convenience store robbery. Maxey was in a juvenile detention center at the time of the robbery and fingerprints found at the scene match someone else.

Mosley dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled.