Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - A drug debt was the apparent motive behind the recent robbery of a Rochester business that left an employee with a fractured skull.

A criminal complaint filed in Olmsted County Court Friday has charged 18-year-old Jacob Meier with aggravated robbery and two counts of felony assault (1st and 2nd degree).  

According to the complaint, Meier has admitted he was the one who hit the 23-year-old victim over the head with a hammer during last Monday’s robbery of the GameStop store in NW Rochester. With Meier during the robbery was 19-year-old Ali Robida.  He is facing the same charges filed against Meier and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

According to the complaint, the two teens have separate apartments at the Gage East complex. Surveillance video from the complex shows the two entering the building 20 minutes after the robbery. It shows they were wearing the same clothing as the two men who were recorded on the store’s surveillance camera during the robbery.

According to the complaint, Meier told police Robida “owed a debt to a drug dealer and the robbery was an effort to obtain funds to pay that debt.”  

Police later learned Robida had sold 16 video games to a pawn store in Duluth two days after the robbery. They were apparently taken during the Rochester robbery.

Meier was arraigned Friday and his bail was set at $100,000. As of Saturday morning, he was still in jail.

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