Thursday February 23, 2023
By Kyeland Jackson
Franklin Edward August Gilles slashed his victim, requiring a dozen stitches to his hand.
A St. Paul man has been sentenced to a prison term of more than three years for a racist machete attack on a Somali man outside a Maplewood body shop.
Franklin Edward August Gilles, 38, was sentenced to 39 months in prison after pleading guilty last fall to second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with the April 11 attack that left Ahmed Gure with 12 stitches to his left hand.
According to charges, Gure, 38, was waiting for an oil change outside the body shop in the 2200 block of White Bear Avenue when he went outside to smoke. A man later identified as Gilles appeared and yelled, "Why are you here? Why are you in my country? Go back to your country!" He then pulled out the machete and swung it down toward Gure. Gilles was later located on surveillance video, the machete was discovered in a trash bin at a nearby home, and police traced Gilles through his truck that had been deserted north of the repair shop.
At a remote hearing Wednesday, Gure told Ramsey County District Judge Edward Sheu that he has been too scared to work or drive alone since the attack. The $1,900 ambulance bill is too much for his family, and Gure's wife says he is still affected by the incident.
"He [was] just fixing his car and [getting an] oil change and this guy came up to him and hit him with no reason," Gure's wife said, translating for him during the hearing. "So anybody he sees, anybody right now, he's thinking [they're] going to hit him."
Gilles and his attorney appealed to Sheu for lenience, saying that Gilles was in a mental health emergency when he attacked Gure. Gilles said that he had been out of work for a month and was trying to find a way back to St. Paul after running out of gas. His probation officer also told police that Gilles is homeless.
"I was under such a mental health emergency that I felt like I was being attacked," Gilles said while apologizing to Gure. "It wasn't aimed at him necessarily because he was Somalian or whatnot. I'm not sure how he could have construed those words."
Gilles has 242 days of credit for jail time served so far, and could spend the last third of his 39-month sentence on supervised release. Before the machete attack, Gilles was on probation for destroying property in 2019.
In that instance, Gilles threw a rock at a woman's window while yelling, "Terrorist!" and "Somalian!"