A Shelbyville man was sentenced to four years in prison and one year probation for his involvement in a Greenwood robbery that injured two people.
Levi S. Walsman, 32, plead guilty and received the maximum sentence for his involvement in the April 2018 robbery at a Greenwood apartment complex, according to a news release from the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office.
Walsman; Antonio Lamont Mitzs, 29, of Franklin; and Shane Gross, 26, of Miami, Ind. were all charged with aiding, inducing or causing robbery, a level 5 felony. Police said they robbed a man at gunpoint in a parking lot at BayShore Apartments, according to newspaper archives.
During a months-long investigation, Greenwood police discovered that five people orchestrated a robbery which targeted a drug dealer who lived at BayShore.
Walsman’s lengthy criminal history, including two prior convictions for robbery as well as multiple other theft and battery-related charges, are the reason for his lengthy prison sentence, said Joe Villanueva, Johnson County prosecutor.
“What happened that day was incredibly dangerous. While Walsman wasn’t the triggerman, he helped set up the scam. It is not unforeseeable that things can go sideways really quickly in these types of situations. Many innocent residents of that complex were placed in danger that day, and that’s exactly the reason we seek to put people who engage in that behavior behind bars," Villanueva said.
Ten days after the incident, the man who was targeted voluntarily went to the Greenwood Police Department to give officers a statement. He told police he was robbed by three men the night of the shooting. He told them one of the men — later identified as Mitzs — struck him in the head with a hard object, which caused the bleeding to his forehead, according to newspaper archives.
He told police they stole his watch, necklace and about $100, and said he had never seen the three men before, newspaper archives said.
During the robbery, he was struggling with one of the men when shots were fired, he told police. He also told them he was selling drugs to a woman related to one of the suspects when the robbery occurred, according to newspaper archives.
The three men approached the vehicle during the drug deal, he told police. Mitzs held a gun to his head, which went off during a struggle between them. That bullet struck Gross in the back and he was taken to an Indianapolis hospital, newspaper archives said.
Police later searched Mitzs’s home and found a gun. Mitzs told police he was involved in the robbery, but said he didn’t shoot anyone. He told police he, Walsman, Gross and two women — including the driver the night of the shooting and the relative of one of the suspects — orchestrated the deal and planned the robbery. Mitzs said they stole about $5,000 in cash. He told police he was already back at his car when gunshots were fired and had no idea who fired them, but also said he fired three shots into the air as they were leaving, according to newspaper archives.
Surveillance video from the Johnson County jail captured discussions of the robbery while some of the people involved were in jail. Phone records revealed that Walsman and Mitzs had been planning to rob the man for money and marijuana, newspaper archives said.
All three men were arrested on warrants in November 2018. Gross plead guilty to the same charge in November 2019, and received a similar sentence. Mitzs is set for a jury trial at the end of March, according to the prosecutor’s office news release.
