A Lakeville man who borrowed his mother’s car and spent five days living in it with his girlfriend and their two young children pleaded guilty this week to felony theft by temporary control and was sentenced to 17 months in prison.
A gross misdemeanor charge of child neglect filed in October against 39-year-old Zachariah Daniel Wilson was dismissed, the Dakota County attorney’s office said.
Wilson’s girlfriend, Angela Dee Robinson, 34, also of Lakeville, pleaded guilty to the theft charge in December and was given 120 days in jail with furlough to treatment, along with five years of probation, and was ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined. A child-neglect count against her was dismissed.
Wilson’s prison sentence will run concurrent with a 21-month sentence he is serving after violating his probation related to a July conviction for threats of violence and second-degree drunken driving.
Wilson’s mother notified police after he did not return her Toyota Camry and avoided her, according to charges. The family was found parked behind a Minneapolis grocery store, and the couple’s 7-year-old son later told a social worker that he had not bathed or brushed his teeth for five days and that some days they did not eat.