Along with his sentence of seven years and one month in prison, Nathan Mathias Sughroue was ordered to serve three years of supervision upon release and pay $1,400 in restitution to his victims. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A judge has imposed a prison term of more than seven years for a man who carried out back-to-back carjackings on the same day in two Minneapolis suburbs and stabbed one of his victims before his arrest while running from police.

Nathan Mathias Sughroue, 32, of Indianola, Neb., was sentenced on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to one count of carjacking and one count of carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury in connection with the crimes on June 16, 2024, first in Shakopee and soon afterward in Bloomington.

Along with his sentence of seven years and one month in prison, Sughroue was ordered to serve three years of supervision upon release and pay $1,400 in restitution to his victims.

For the same incidents, Sughroue remains charged in Hennepin County District Court with first-degree attempted murder and first-degree carjacking. A hearing regarding those charges is scheduled for July 1.

Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors argued in a court filing for Sughroue to receive a term of more than eight years, pointing out that his victims “will suffer long-term consequences as the result of his actions.”

Namely, they continued, the driver he targeted in Shakopee was “a 16-year-old girl with just a few months of experience driving a car. This dangerous and frightening experience is likely to remain a bitter and painful memory for the rest of this girl’s life.”

Sughroue’s next carjacking “was particularly cruel,” the filing read. “He nearly killed this man. As [he] lay on the pavement near a gas pump, with blood gushing profusely from his neck from stab wounds the defendant created, the defendant callously left him for dead and sped away in his vehicle.”

Defense attorneys sought a sentence of 6¼ years, telling the court in writing that the death of Sughroue’s father deeply affected him as an 11-year-old. They also pointed out that Sughroue suffers from depression and anxiety, and has struggled with substance abuse for many years.

“Mr. Sughroue is not the average offender,” they wrote. “Prior to the offenses in question, [he] led a hard-working, law-abiding life.”

According to the Hennepin County criminal complaint:

Police were sent shortly after 1 p.m. to a gas station on W. 98th Street in Bloomington about two men fighting outside a car. Officers spoke to one of the men, who was sitting in a Hyundai sedan. The officers learned the Hyundai had been carjacked at knifepoint about 90 minutes earlier in Shakopee.

The wounded man in Bloomington told police he was getting gas for his Nissan SUV when the Hyundai pulled in front of him. That driver, later identified as Sughroue, approached the SUV owner and demanded the keys. Sughroue got in the front passenger seat of the SUV, and the two started fighting.

Sughroue got in the driver’s seat of the SUV and drove from the gas pump with the “victim still partially inside,” the charges said.

As the SUV moved, the victim was either pushed or fell to the pavement. Sughroue drove off.

Medical personnel at HCMC found the SUV driver had a stab wounds to his abdomen, chest, liver and stomach.

Officers searched the Hyundai that was carjacked at knifepoint from a female near a Caribou Coffee shop on Heather Street in Shakopee, and they found Sughroue’s photo identification on the front passenger seat.

Two people at the scene in Shakopee told law enforcement they were taking Sughroue to treatment for a need not specified in the charges when they lost track of him.

Soon afterward, a Shakopee police officer spotted the carjacked Hyundai heading north on County Road 17 from Hwy. 169 and gave chase. However, the pursuit was called off when Sughroue changed lanes in a construction zone and struck a highway barrel.

Shortly after 1:15 p.m., police in Robbinsdale were on the scene of a traffic collision involving the stolen SUV on Hwy. 100 south of the 42nd Avenue exit. Sughroue ran from the wreckage and tried to get into vehicles as they headed south.

“Ultimately,” the complaint noted, “[Sughroue] was dragged along the highway falling into lanes of traffic.”

Police spotted Sughroue in the bushes near a highway barrier wall and arrested him.