A 39-year-old Minnesota man has been ordered to spend more than 100 years in prison for shooting and killing four people in St. Paul before leaving them in an SUV ditched in a western Wisconsin cornfield in 2021.
Antoine Darnique Suggs was found guilty on all four counts of second-degree intentional murder after a two-week jury trial earlier this year. Each count had a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Monday morning, Ramsey County Judge JaPaul Harris sentenced Suggs to more than 25 years on each count, totaling more than 103 years.
Prosecutors say Suggs shot and killed Jasmine Sturm, Matthew Pettus, Nitosha Flug-Presley and Loyace Foreman III in St. Paul during the early morning hours of Sept. 12, 2021.
A farmer found the SUV with four bodies inside on his property in Sheridan, Wis. on the afternoon of Sept. 12.
Investigators say they used cell phone data from that night to determine that they believed Suggs killed the victims when he was near the White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul between 3:30 a.m. and 3:48 a.m. All four victims had been shot in the head.
Court records state that Suggs then met his father, 56-year-old Darren Osborne, who also uses the last name McWright, and that the two then traveled to Wisconsin in separate vehicles.
Ramsey County prosecutors charged Osborne with one count of aiding an offender. He pleaded guilty in October 2022 and was later sentenced to five years in prison.
Suggs was arrested in Arizona when he surrendered to police in Gilbert days after the shooting.
Local law enforcement said he had been living in the Phoenix area before returning to Minnesota during the time of the murders.
Several victim impact statements were read before the judge handed down the sentence, and Suggs also spoke briefly before he was sentenced and maintained he acted in self-defense.
After announcing Suggs’ sentence, Judge Harris said he lost sleep over the decision of whether or not to have Suggs serve the sentences consecutively or concurrently. However, Harris said Suggs showed no remorse or sympathy and, instead, “cast blame on others.”
That led the judge to decide that Suggs should serve the sentences consecutively, and said it will make Suggs “take responsibility” for what he did.
“Make no mistakes, you caused their deaths, you pulled the trigger, you put them in their graves, and for that reason, you will serve this time,” Harris said.
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