Ex-Smoothie King employee accused of choking, kidnapping, robbing former manager: 'You are not going to ruin my Christmas!'

A former employee of a Houston Smoothie King allegedly became so enraged at losing her job that she assaulted her manager, forced the woman to withdraw money from a bank across the street, and then robbed her and the store as well.

The manager, whose name was redacted in the affidavit, claimed that she first met Keshia Lynette Christmas, 34, about four months ago when she transferred to the Smoothie King location where Christmas worked. During the months that the two worked together, the manager became increasingly dissatisfied with Christmas' work performance. The manager claimed Christmas repeatedly showed up late, when she did show up at all.

So, on December 12, the manager called Christmas to let her know she had been terminated. Christmas did not answer, so the manager left a voicemail message. The manager then left her usual Smoothie King location to drive to another store. During her absence, Christmas arrived at the store with her 15-year-old daughter in tow. Another employee then informed Christmas that she had been fired, and Christmas then allegedly became enraged. She began yelling and eventually ventured behind the counter and began rifling through the register, the report states.

When the manager returned, Christmas allegedly continued her tirade. She grabbed the manager by the neck, slammed her against the wall three times, and demanded her final paycheck, reports claim.

"The Complainant stated the Defendant kept yelling and screaming but the only thing she understood was ‘you are not going to ruin my Christmas,'" the affidavit states. The report also states that Christmas, who weighs approximately 85 lbs more than her former manager, choked the woman so hard that "she could not breathe and started gasping for air."

At some point, the suspect got in possession of the woman's phone and marched her across the street to a Wells Fargo bank, threatening to "throw her into oncoming traffic" if she tried to run. The suspect's daughter followed closely behind. Then Christmas supposedly demanded that the victim withdraw $200 from the ATM, and the victim complied because she "was in fear for her life," the report says. At that point, Christmas reportedly threw her phone back at her, and the manager ran back into the Smoothie King store, locked herself in the bathroom, and called the cops.

Surveillance footage from the store seemed to corroborate the manager's story, cops said. Christmas can allegedly be seen putting her hands on the manager's neck, snapping pictures of cards from the manager's purse, and searching through the office safe. In all, the manager claimed that $7 was missing from her purse, $34 was missing from the store safe, and $40 was missing from the till.

There are also indications that Christmas texted the manager after the incident and threatened to assault her again at her home. She even supposedly texted the manager the manager's home address, ostensibly to prove she knows where the woman lives.

For now, Christmas remains at large but has been charged with aggravated kidnapping, robbery with bodily injury, and retaliation. At the time of the incident, she was out on bond for an unrelated domestic violence allegation made back in June. She had also reportedly been convicted of domestic assault in Minnesota back in March.

The mugshot of Christmas featured here is from a previous arrest.