Posted on October 18, 2021

Accused St. Paul Bar Shooter Could Have Gone to Prison 4 Times. He Was Sent Once.

Mara H. Gottfried and Deanna Weniger, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, October 16, 2021

Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr. was given multiple chances by the criminal justice system to change his behavior, according to his lengthy criminal record.

Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr

Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr

But the trouble didn’t stop — robbery, drug possession, domestic abuse, violating orders for protection, drunken driving.

Brown was sentenced for five felonies between 2007 and 2019. While state sentencing guidelines recommended prison time in four of the cases, judges gave him lighter sentences in three of the cases and didn’t send him to prison — the possibility of being locked up was hanging over his head if he violated terms of his probation.

Instead of going to prison when Brown continued to break the conditions of his probation, he was given more probation. In all, from 2007 to the present, most of the time Brown spent locked up was while he waited for his cases to be heard. Once he was sentenced, he received credit for time served and was released from custody.

On Oct. 10, prosecutors say Brown was armed with a gun that was illegal for him to possess, due to his past convictions, when he engaged in a shootout with another man that left one dead and 15 injured at the Seventh Street Truck Park bar. It was the worst shooting incident in memory in St. Paul.

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The family of Marquisha Wiley — the 27-year-old veterinary technician killed on Oct. 10 — wrote in her obituary that “there is no justice that such a bright light in this world was extinguished as a result of senseless and needless violence.”

The reason for the shooting was an argument about domestic abuse, according to murder and attempted-murder charges filed against Brown, of St. Paul, and Devondre Trevon Phillips, 29. They allegedly shot at each other in the crowded West Seventh Street food hall and bar, catching Wiley and 12 others in their crossfire.

Devondre Trevon Phillips

Devondre Trevon Phillips

Phillips, Brown and a man who Brown was talking to were shot and wounded. {snip}

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Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, adopted in 1980, are a grid that prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges use. A sentence’s length depends on the severity of the crime and the defendant’s criminal history.

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Judges can choose to follow the sentencing guidelines or depart from them. If they give more or less time than the grid suggests, they have to provide specific reasons..

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Brown was first convicted of a felony, aggravated robbery, at age 18. In the 14 years that followed, Brown was sentenced for at least nine offenses in Minnesota, ranging from misdemeanors to felonies. An attorney for Brown couldn’t be reached for comment.

The one time that Brown was sent to prison came when he was 26 and was convicted of aiding and abetting simple robbery in Ramsey County. He was sentenced in 2014 to two years and five months, which was a guidelines sentence.

Court records and information from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission show the following about Brown’s history:

  • In 2007, an aggravated robbery conviction, Hennepin County. Based on the severity of the case, the presumptive sentence was prison. To the objection of the prosecutor, he received a downward departure with stayed prison time — the reasons cited were that Brown was amenable to probation and remorseful. He was credited for 143 days he had served in the workhouse and put on probation for seven years.
  • In 2011, a drug possession conviction, Hennepin County. The guidelines sentence was a stay of execution, which is what Brown received. He was put on probation until 2015.
  • In 2017, a gross misdemeanor domestic assault conviction, Ramsey County. He was sentenced to one year, which was stayed, and released after serving 69 days.
  • In 2017, a felony violation of no-contact order, Ramsey County. The guidelines sentence was prison. He received a stayed sentence, credit for 25 days he served in jail and was released on probation until 2022. It was a plea agreement that police and the victim supported, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
  • And in 2019, a felony violation of no-contact order, Hennepin County. State sentencing guidelines called for Brown to be sent to prison; the sentence was stayed with the judge indicating that Brown was amenable to probation. He served 180 days on work release. The Hennepin County attorney’s office said it was supported by the victim. He violated probation twice more, resetting his time through 2024.

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Sentencings in Ramsey and Hennepin counties more often result in downward departures.

Among the state’s 10 judicial districts, Ramsey County had the highest rate of downward departures in prison-recommended felony cases in 2019 — 51 percent received stayed sentences when the guidelines recommended prison time. In Hennepin County, 34.5 percent received stayed sentences when the guidelines recommended prison.

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Brown’s most recent conviction was in August for driving while impaired. He was sentenced to 365 days in the Hennepin County workhouse and given credit for having served 86 days. The remaining 279 days were stayed for five years, and he was put on probation for five years.

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State Rep. Marion O’Neill, R-Maple Lake, pointed out that if Brown had not received a stayed sentence, he would have been locked up on the night of the bar shooting. {snip}

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After the Oct. 10 shooting, Brown told police that he saw Phillips when he entered the bar. The men were in a dispute due to allegations of domestic abuse between Brown and his girlfriend, who is a relative of Phillips’, according to the criminal complaints. Video surveillance showed Phillips shot Brown, who fired back, the complaints said.

Phillips, of Las Vegas, previously had minor run-ins with the law, with no cases in Minnesota after 2013, court records show. {snip}

He was charged at age 16 in Ramsey County with first-degree attempted aggravated robbery and adjudicated delinquent — the juvenile version of being found guilty. Other charges in the case were dismissed, including second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a gun by a person under 18.

It was this 2008 adjudication that made Phillips ineligible to possess firearms, the complaint in the bar shooting said. {snip}

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