Fired Cowboy Jack's worker who robbed manager sentenced to 17 years

A Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to robbing the bar he was fired from has now been sentenced in federal court.

Prosecutors say Hakeem Alexander Coles, 25, "committed a violent armed robbery" at Cowboy Jack's bar and grill in downtown Minneapolis on August 17, 2019, a day after the business terminated his employment. 

According to a release from the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Coles held the general manager at gunpoint "with a short-barreled shotgun" and ordered her to fill a backpack with cash from the bar's safe. He then bound her hands and "violently punched the victim in the side of her head, causing her to lose consciousness."

He made off with $24,000 and fled to Texas, where he allegedly committed another armed robbery, the release says. 

As KARE 11 reported last month, the victim at Cowboy Jack's was able to free herself and dial 911 after Coles left the scene; he was later identified by police through surveillance video.

The station says that at the time of the robbery, he had an active arrest warrant related to a conviction for a previous armed robbery.  

After fleeing to Texas, Coles was eventually arrested in Louisiana, where authorities found him with a semiautomatic pistol and another short-barreled shotgun, the release says. 

Coles pleaded guilty to the Cowboy Jack's robbery this past August.

He was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in federal prison, and ordered to pay $86,200 in restitution.