Before he would take the stand Thursday to testify against another man accused in a double killing, felon Cortney Saffold decided he wanted a better deal than the one he had already cut.

Saffold, 20, pleaded guilty early last month to two counts of being an accomplice after the fact in the January 2007 killings of two people in a car outside a Brooklyn Park apartment. In exchange, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for one killing and given another 20 years of probation for the second. If he violated probation, he could go to prison for that second 20-year stint.

He was to testify in the trial of Revelle Loving in connection with the killings.

Before he took the stand Thursday, Saffold and his lawyer, Gary Bryant-Wolf, renegotiated his deal with Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Bev Benson.

Saffold will now serve both sentences simultaneously. Bryant-Wolf said his client could be out of prison in 11 years.

"You've got to work all the angles," Bryant-Wolf said.

Benson declined to comment after court.

District Court Judge Mel Dickstein approved the revised deal, which briefly held up Loving's double murder trial.

Loving's trial has been underway for nearly two weeks before District Court Judge Philip Bush. Sentence reductions in exchange for testimony are not uncommon, but such open last-minute maneuvering is.

"You weren't going to testify unless they sweetened the pot and they sweetened the pot," Loving's lawyer, William Selman, said to Saffold, who agreed.

Loving is accused of firing an AK-47 numerous times into a parked car in which sat his former girlfriend, Mosetta Peters, and her boyfriend, Ja'Nurri Allen, both 18, of New Brighton. Revelle's brother, Ronelle Loving, also is accused in the killings, but has yet to go to trial. Revelle Loving had twice been charged with assaulting Peters.

Saffold testified that he was the driver that night and believed he was driving to the home of the Lovings' grandmother in Coon Rapids. Instead, he testified, they ended up in the parking lot.

Saffold said he saw the two Lovings get out of the car and Revelle Loving disappeared from sight shortly before he heard multiple gunshots.

Within a day or two, Revelle Loving came to see him at his job and asked him to get rid of the guns, Saffold said. The guns had been left in a parked car at the grandmother's house.

Saffold said he and Revelle Loving dumped the AK-47 and a 9-millimeter gun. Neither has been found.

Saffold also testified that Revelle Loving believed Allen was sexually abusing the daughter he shared with Mosetta Peters.

Defense attorney Selman pressed Saffold on his role in the shootings. A hat that Saffold admitted to wearing was found near the crime scene. "Were you one of the shooters this night?" Selman asked.

Saffold said no and Selman responded: "You just stayed in the car and watched this go down."

He suggested that Saffold told police he was the driver that night because he would get less time in prison than if he were a shooter.

The 3-year-old daughter of Revelle Loving and Mosetta Peters is in foster care.

Rochelle Olson • 612-673-1747