Crime & Safety

Whitfield to be Sentenced for 2008 Attack

Shaquen Whitfield will face the court for the final time tomorrow.

The day of reckoning is close at hand for Shaquen Perril Whitfield. On Thursday the 22-year-old will be sentenced for his role in a savage attack on a Burnsville man in 2008.

The attack began in the early morning hours of May 11, 2008. Paul Traub, then 52, awoke to find two intruders inside his Burnsville townhouse. The men entered the home through the garage, which Traub unwittingly left open overnight. 

When Traub went to call the police, one of the men lunged at him with a knife. 
According to a release from the Dakota County Attorney's Office, one of the men told Traub, "I hope you know you are going to die. I just stabbed you in the head."

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He handed the knife to his partner, who gored Traub in the torso. The attackers then set seven to eight fires inside the townhouse.

The victim survived in spite of 17 stab wounds to his back and the two knife thrusts to his head, which were delivered with such force that the point of the knife broke off in his skull. Though he was bleeding heavily, Traub managed to run through the fire to a neighbor's home for help.

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The attackers stole Traub's car, a set of commemorative coins and two bottles of cologne.

DNA evidence at the scene tied Whitfield to the attack. According to court documents, Whitfield's mother persuaded her son to take a plea deal and testify against Cook. He pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder, first-degree arson, and first-degree burglary on June 22, 2009.

That day, Whitfield described the events of May 11, 2008 for the court. According to a transcript of his testimony, Whitfield, Irvin Cook and Lance Wilkins happened on the house as they were walking away from an accident. The car they were driving crashed and rolled near 136th Street.

Whitfield testified that the other two went inside the house while he waited in the garage to keep a lookout. He said that about 20 minutes later, the other two came out and tossed him the keys to the victim's car, which he then drove to Prime Rate Hotel. He claimed that he had no knowledge of the true nature of the attack until he had a heated conversation with Cook two weeks later.

Wilkins was initially charged with the crime, but prosecutors dropped the case against him after it became clear that he was not involved in the attack that morning.

Cook was tried in spring of 2010. He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison.





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