Rochester Man Gets 5 1/2 Years for Home Invasion

One of the two Rochester men who pleaded guilty last week to a violent home invasion in December has been sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison.

23-year-old Javaar Watkins and 23-year-old Deondra Kight of Dodge Center were accused of assaulting a man and threatening him by holding a gun to his head before they fled with several hundred dollars cash. The victim’s girlfriend and their child were also in the home, but were not harmed. Kight will be sentenced in August.

Watkins was sent to prison in 2010 for a shooting incident in December 2009. He and a cousin were charged with firing several shots at three RCTC football players at an apartment complex near the college campus. No one was hurt in the shooting, which police say was related to an earlier confrontation involving the same people. Watkins was given a three year prison sentence for that conviction.