2 Teens Arrested, Linked To Woodbury Carjacking: Prosecutors

WOODBURY, MN — Two St. Paul teens facing more than a dozen carjacking-related charges in Hennepin County are also linked to a recent carjacking in Woodbury, according to prosecutors.

Kashawn Wertman, 18, faces 17 charges related to a series of carjackings, while Nautica Argue, 19, faces 14 charges, and both are likely to face more charges, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.

Wertman and Argue are accused of committing more than 20 carjacking-related crimes from Jan. 7-17, with crimes reported in more than a dozen cities, including Woodbury, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

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Hennepin County prosecutors did not provide any details about which crimes Wertman and Argue are linked to in Woodbury, and the Washington County Attorney’s Office did not respond Monday to Patch’s request for more information.

Woodbury police were called Jan. 12 to the Woodbury Lakes shopping center for a reported carjacking. A woman was forced to run to safety at the shopping center after two people parked their SUV next to her and demanded her keys and purse.

One of the two carjackers kept their hands in their pocket and implied they had a gun, police said.

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The woman ran to a business at the shopping center, and the two carjackers drove away in the woman's Jeep Cherokee and an SUV that was stolen less than an hour before in St. Louis Park, according to police.

Criminal complaints against Wertman and Argue provide a timeline for a series of carjackings and attempted carjackings the pair are accused of committing earlier that day.

Police allege Wertman and Argue were involved in two robberies around 10 a.m. Jan. 12 in Richfield. The pair allegedly demanded keys from a woman walking her dogs in a parking lot — then tried to steal the dogs — before carjacking an SUV from another woman in the same lot.

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Brooklyn Center police were called at 1:45 p.m. Jan. 12 to an attempted carjacking at a gym, where Wertman allegedly punched a woman in the face before fleeing the area in the SUV stolen from Richfield.

An Edina business owner stopped an attempted carjacking several hours later after two people tried to take keys from a woman as she was picking up her child from daycare, according to the complaints filed against Wertman and Argue.

The woman grabbed her purse and phone from her car and ran toward the daycare, the complaints state. Police said the business owner pulled Argue off the woman after she tripped while running.

Police allege Argue then fled with Wertman in the SUV stolen from Richfield.

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Forty minutes later, St. Louis Park police were called after a woman was punched in the head during a carjacking. Wertman and Argue allegedly left the stolen SUV in the parking lot and fled in the woman’s Nissan Rogue.

Police say the pair used that stolen SUV to commit a carjacking at the Woodbury Lakes shopping center about a half-hour after the St. Louis Park carjacking.

Police allege Wertman and Argue were also responsible for carjackings and other crimes in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Plymouth, White Bear Lake, Roseville, Lakeville, Eagan, Columbia Heights, Burnsville and Little Canada, as well as several others in St. Louis Park.

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Wertman and Argue were arrested Jan. 18 after they were stopped by Ramsey County deputies while in a stolen Audi TT, police said. They “admitted to certain offenses” while talking to police after they were arrested, Hennepin County prosecutors said.

Police said Wertman and Argue posted photos on social media, including some that showed them inside stolen vehicles, according to the criminal complaints filed against them.